EUGENE, Ore. – After trailing by as many as ten points over the first 20 minutes, the Northwest Christian University men’s basketball team came all the way back to knock off No. 12 Oregon Tech on Saturday night, 87-82 in the Morse Event Center.
The Beacons outplayed an opponent that beat them 112-91 earlier this season but who has been dealing with a multitude of injuries as four of their top seven scorers have been sidelined.
“This win felt really good,” said Head Coach Eddie Alexander who is now .500 against Oregon Tech in his coaching career. “We feel like we always match up well against them, but we give them a lot of credit. They are playing short-handed and fighting every single night.”
After leading by six at halftime, Oregon Tech had built a 54-46 lead with 17:14 to play. Ernest Ugoagu went down and hit a three-pointer on the next NCU possession which seems to light a fire. The Beacons stormed their way to a 14-2 run, taking the lead on a Malik Corey three-pointer with 14:10.
It would prove to be the final lead change of the night as the Beacons saw their advantage grow to as many as 12 points with under eight minutes to play. The Owls fought their way back to within three points on a Matt Van Tassell three-pointer with 20 seconds to play but freshman Stevie Schlabach iced the game at the line, hitting a pair of free-throws for the five-point win.
For the Beacons (14-12, 9-7 CCC), Corey was a huge part of the second-half surge, scoring 12 of his 17 points. Coming into the game with 11 made threes on the season, the sophomore went 5-for-7 in the game including four in the second half.
Coach Alexander said, “The first thing I thought about this morning when I woke up was that somebody who hadn’t really stepped up yet was going to need to in order to win this game. We didn’t know who it was but we needed someone to, and tonight it was Malik. He has been putting in so much work on his jump shot and he finally felt the rewards and I am so proud of him.”
The Beacons ended up 9-for-14 behind the arch in the second half and finished shooting 52% from three and 48% from the field. The Beacons had seven blocks and ended the night with 15 three-pointers.
Oregon Tech (19-6, 9-6) shot 43% in the game and were held to 5-for-18 shooting from outside. They out-rebounded the Beacons 43-38 and turned the ball over just six times.
Schlabach ended the night with a team-high 19 points for NCU, adding five rebounds and three blocks. Corey and Ernest Ugoagu each scored 17 and Logan Davis finished with ten points and six assists. Shawn Carson scored nine points and added a game-high 13 rebounds, picking up four on the offensive glass.
The Owls were led by Van Tassell, scoring 25 points on 10-for-16 shooting. Garret Albrecht posted a double-double with 19 points and ten rebounds before fouling out.
Senior Mitchell Fink
Back-to-back CCC Player of the Year Mitchell Fink also scored 19 in the loss. A layup early in the second half pushed him past 2000 points for his career. With that, he became just the second player in the Owls storied history with the milestone, and he became one of just 12 players in men’s college basketball history at any level to reach 2000 points and 800 assists in a career.
With the win, NCU move back up into fifth place in the CCC and now sit just a half game behind the Owls for fourth. The top eight teams qualify for the CCC tournament with the top-four playing host to opening round games.
The Beacons will look to take the momentum from tonight into their final road trip of the regular season, heading to Portland to take on Multnomah on Friday and Warner Pacific on Saturday with both games schedule to begin at 7:30 pm.
Alexander said, “Having a young team, you are going to have your ups and downs and from last night to tonight is a prime example. I really believe that this can fuel some momentum for us heading out on the road next weekend and we are going to have one of our best weeks of practice coming out of this game. This is what we needed heading toward the post season. We may be young but we know we have the ability to go on a three-game run against anyone in this conference to try and sneak into the national tourney.”