LA GRANDE, Ore. – The Eastern Oregon University men's basketball team was defeated by No. 13 Concordia, 78-60, on Friday evening at Quinn Coliseum.
Bryan McGriff led the Mountaineers (9-5, 2-3 CCC) with a game-high 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting.
Austin Strock came off the bench and went 5-of-12 shooting for 13 points to round out the double-figure scorers for EOU.
Concordia (12-2, 3-1 CCC) shot 54 percent from the floor for the fifth time this season. Tyler Velasquez led the way with a game-high 21 points. Velasquez tallied five assists on the night. A trio of Cavaliers, Thomas Pierce, Justyn Searle and Anthony Holton added 11 points, apiece. John Erickson rounded out the double-digit scorers for Concordia with 10.
The Cavaliers came out on fire from behind the arc as they made 3 out of their first 4 attempts in the first four minutes of the game. Concordia built an 11 point lead, 16-5, after a Holton's second three pointer to start the game.
Concordia continued to extend their lead over the Mountaineers and stretch their lead to 17, 30-13, after a Velasquez jumper. EOU cut the lead down to 12, 34-22, but that was as close as the Mountaineers got the rest of the first half and found themselves down, 42-28, at halftime.
A jumper by McGriff to start the second half trimmed Cavaliers lead down to 12, 42-30. Concordia slowly started to extend their lead and after a jumper by Pierce, the Cavaliers grew their lead back to 20 points, 57-37.
The Mountaineers continued to battle but with 12:53 left, they found themselves down 24 points, 63-39. This was the Cavaliers biggest lead of the night. After trailing by 24, the Mountaineers scored the next six points, trimming the lead down to 18, 63-45, before Concordia stretched the lead back to 20 points.
Eastern Oregon trimmed Concordia's lead down to 16 but could not get any closer for the rest of the game and the Mountaineers were defeated, 78-60.
EOU returns to action tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 3 when they host Warner Pacific at 7:30 p.m. Concordia heads to Caldwell, Idaho to face College of Idaho at 7:30 p.m. MT, tomorrow.