EUGENE, Ore. – An early battle turned into a late blowout on Saturday as Oregon Tech claimed a non-conference victory from Bushnell in men’s basketball action, 87-69.
The Owls (7-2) played a clean game with just ten turnovers, helping to overcome a Bushnell advantage in shooting as the Beacons hit 51% of their shots. Oregon Tech out-rebounded the Beacons 34-30, and went deep, playing 14 men and out-scored Bushnell 40-12 in bench points.
Head Coach Eddie Alexander said, “Taking care of the basketball has been our Achilles heel and we did a poor job of valuing the basketball tonight. We need to grow from this and get better. We will never stop working hard and we will not stop working until we fix these gaps in our game.”
The game started out as a true battle, with the teams trading leads nine times and playing through six ties over the opening 14 minutes. Bushnell had built a six-point lead, 18-12, with 12 minutes to play, but the teams were knotted again at 31-31.
Harrison Steiger gave the visitors the lead for good with 7:04 remaining on a three-pointer and OIT grew the advantage to 46-37 at intermission. The Owls led by as many as 25 in the second half.
Bushnell (6-6) was led by Stevie Schlabach, scoring 20 points as he shot 9-for-12 from the field. Kaden Sand added 16 points and Ernest Ugoagu scored 15 as both players posted game-highs with six rebounds.
Erik Fraser came off the bench to lead the Owls with 23 points. He scored 14 in the second half as he hit four consecutive three-pointers as the team took command of the game. He finished 8-for-10 from the field and 5-for-7 beyond the arc. Matt Van Tassell (pictured, shooting) added 20 points while Steiger finished with 19.
The Beacons will hit the road next weekend, closing out the 2021 spring season in Ashland as they face off against Southern Oregon University in a battle for third place in the Cascade Collegiate Conference. Oregon Tech returns home and will face off against Warner Pacific.