Senior Tyson Christie led the Eagles with 16 points.
Northwest Holds Off Southern Oregon
#16 Northwest University held off a second half rally by Southern Oregon for a 79-65 Cascade Conference win tonight for their fifth straight victory.
In the first half, it looked as though NU would cruise to the victory as they bolted out to a 21-6 lead in the first 6 minutes of the contest. Jordan Call’s layup at the 10:34 mark would give Northwest an 18 point lead, 25-7, over the Raiders, but SOU would out score Northwest 17 to 12 the remainder of the half to cut the Eagles’ lead to 13, 37-24, as the team’s headed to the locker room.
NU’s Greg George would start the second half with a jumper to increase NU’s lead to 39-24, but back would come the Raiders and they would chip away at the Eagles lead and Kellen Hawley would drain a jumper to make it a 6 point ball game, 42-36, with 14:57 showing on the clock. A layup by SOU’s Jordan Highland would cut the NU lead to four, 44-40, at 13:38 and a jumper by the Raiders’ Kyle Tedder and another one by Austin Wolfer would knot the score at 44-all with 12:30 left on the clock. NU would then go on a 7-0 run started by two Ahmaad Cook free throws and capped off by a Cook 3-pointer to make it, 51-44, Northwest with 10:52 remaining in the game. Highland would hit another jumper to make it a five point game, 51-46 (9:50), but the Eagles would answer with an 11-0 run punctuated by a short jumper by NU’s Jordan Call from 12 feet out to give the Eagles a 62-46 lead at the 4:44 mark. Northwest would maintain that lead the remainder of the game as SOU’s Trevor McCay would end the scoring with his 3-pointer with 30 seconds left in the game.
Four Eagles scored in doubles figures for Northwest U. (17-5, 9-4 CCC) led by senior Tyson Christie with his 16 points. 6-9 Greg George added 15 points, 4 assists and 9 rebounds, junior Jordan Call scored 13 points and junior guard Ahmaad Cook contributed 12 points and had 7 steals on the night. NU shot 48% from 2-point range but were limited to 21% from the 3-point line.
Southern Oregon (13-13, 6-8 CCC) was led by junior Jordan Highland’s (cousin of NU's Tyson Christie) 19 points while teammate Kellen Hawley scored 15 points. Freshman Kyle Tedder scored 13 points and added 4 assists. The rebounding totals were a draw at 39 apiece. The Raiders were held to 39% shooting on the night and a cool, 12% from the 3-point line going 3 for 24 from beyond the arc.
"Southern Oregon made a run at us to tie the game in the second half," said Eagle head coach, John Van Dyke, "but our guys showed poise and confidence and they pulled away and regained the lead. We got some solid play off the bench tonight and the team earned the victory."
NU remains at home in Kirkland and will host #7 and league-leading Oregon Tech tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. in the NU Pavilion while Southern Oregon heads south on Interstate 5 to Olympia to play the Evergreen State College also at 7:30 p.m.