LA GRANDE, Ore. – The Eastern Oregon men's basketball team earned its biggest win of the year on Friday night, defeating No. 5 Oregon Tech 87-84 at home in Cascade Collegiate Conference play.
The Mountaineers (10-9, 4-6 CCC) nearly led from start to finish, but needed to hold off a late comeback by the Owls (16-4, 6-4 CCC). Oregon Tech trailed by 17 points halfway through the second half, but ultimately came up just short. EOU junior Max McCullough and Oregon Tech senior Mitchell Fink went head-to-head all night. Fink scored a game-high 38 points while McCullough posted 31.
HOW IT HAPPENED
EOU jumped out to an early 15-5 lead just minutes into the game and never saw their lead completely disappear. Despite not shooting their best, the Owls continued to scrap and pulled to within two points on multiple occasions. The Mountaineers led 39-33 at halftime.
McCullough took over early in the second half and had Eastern leading 68-51 with 9:26 to play. From there, it was the Owls and Fink, cutting the score to 68-61 with 6:37 left after a 10-0 run. With less than a minute remaining, Oregon Tech finally cut EOU's lead to one possession at 82-79 with 23 seconds remaining. The Owls got the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead with nine seconds, but junior Jamal Heckard blocked Fink's final shot with one second remaining.
BY THE NUMBERS
4 – The Mountaineers had four players in double-digit scoring. After McCullough, junior Josh Brown had 16 points followed by seniors Landon Jones and Jarek Schetzle with 15 apiece.
57 – EOU shot just over 57 percent from the floor while holding OIT to 46 percent.
40 – McCullough and Jones each played all 40 minutes on the night.
5 – Eastern's win broke the Owl's five game-winning streak against EOU dating back to Feb. 11, 2017.
NEXT UP
The Mountaineers are faced with another tough test on Saturday, hosting No. 15 Southern Oregon at 7:30 p.m.
For more information on Eastern Oregon men's basketball, follow @EOUAthletics or visit eousports.com.
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Contact: Iain Dexter; 541-962-3946; idexter@eou.edu