Men's Basketball Semifinals Action Tonight
LA GRANDE, Ore. – The Cascade Collegiate Conference 2017-18 Men’s Basketball Championships presented by U.S. Bank continue today with semifinal games. Fans can follow the action on the CCC webpage tournament site-
Click Here or at
CCCWEBTV for live webcast.
No. 4 Southern Oregon (18-12, 12-8 CCC) at No. 1 College of Idaho (25-6, 18-2 CCC)
7 p.m. MST – Caldwell, Idaho- J.A. Albertson Event Center
Top-seeded and regular season champion College of Idaho will be at home as they host fourth-seed Southern Oregon.
Despite poor shooting and a plethora of turnovers, CI clawed their way out of a double digit deficit to defeat a Northwest team bent on defying the odds of an eight seed winning on the floor of a one seed. The 62-56 win was the 25
th on the season for the Yotes. Talon Pinckney scored a game-high 19 points, including a career-high six 3-pointers to lead CI. Player of the Year candidate Aziz Leeks was held to just three points but had 14 rebounds.
Southern Oregon used a red hot second half to take down Eastern Oregon 97-73 in their quarterfinal matchup. All five starters ended in double-digit scoring for the Raiders led by Tristen Holmes with 16 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and four steals. Ben DeSaulnier hit all three of his second-half attempts from 3 to finish with 15 points.
The teams split their regular season matchups each winning on their home floor. SOU took a 100-93 contest back in December while CI won 66-50 just over a week ago.
No. 3 Oregon Tech (22-9, 14-6 CCC) at No. 2 Warner Pacific (22-8, 15-5 CCC)
7 p.m. PST – Portland, Ore. - Bart Valentine Court
Three seed Oregon Tech heads to the Rose City and Bart Valentine Court to take on second-seed Warner Pacific.
Collin Malcolm scored 23 points to lead the Knights past Northwest Christian 95-81 to reach the semifinal tilt. Brandon Bell, coming off the bench, adding 18 points and seven rebounds in the win.
Jalen Carvalho etched his name in Hustlin’ Owl lore with a tip in basket off of a Mitchell Fink miss to send OIT to the semi’s and sealed the 65-63 win over Corban. In a contest that saw the Warrior in control for much of the night, OIT rallied behind Player of the Year candidate Fink who had 33 points, nine rebounds and five assists. Carvalho grabbed 10 boards along with his game winning shot.
WPU won both regular season matchups over the Hustlin’ Owls.
Saturday’s winners advance to the conference tournament championship on Tuesday night at the campus sites of the highest remaining seed for a chance to play for the Danny Miles Tournament trophy.
The Tournament Champion will automatically receive a berth in the NAIA Men’s Basketball National Championship representing the Cascade Conference. In the event that the tournament is won by regular season champion, College of Idaho, then the second seeded team in the CCC tournament will earn the second automatic bid to the national tournament. The NAIA men’s tournament is being held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota March 7-13.
The 2018 CCC Championship game will be broadcast live on ROOT SPORTS Tuesday Feb. 27
th at 7 p.m. PST. The network reaches approximately 3.2 million households across five states (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska), and delivers more than 350 live events each year – all of which are available in high definition. Fans can use the Channel Finder at
rootsports.com to find the channel in their area on cable or satellite television. The game will also be available on all digital platforms for ROOT SPORTS subscribers.