La Grande, Ore- The Eastern Oregon men’s basketball team lost a hard fought game to College of Idaho by a score of 83-82, tonight at Quinn Coliseum.
Senior Anthony Brown led the Mountaineers with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Trent Roos finished with 10 points and 2 assists, while Zach Anderson added 10 points and 3 rebounds.
College of Idaho was led by Sydney Donaldson with 16 points and 4 steals, while Taylor Pruett finished with 12 points and 5 rebounds.
In an evenly matched first half there were 8 different lead changes and 6 ties. The Yotes came out strong and would build a seven point lead six minutes into the game. Midway through the half the Yotes still led, 23-19, but Eastern would fight back and head into the locker room only trailing by one, 41-42.
Eastern shot 15-of-34 (44%) from the field in the first half and 6-of-12 (50%) from behind the arc. College of Idaho shot 15-of-29 (51%) from the field and 8-of-11 (72%) from downtown.
The second half continued much like the first, with 22 different lead changes and 11 ties. With 12:37 in the first half EOU’s Zach Anderson would put the Mountaineers up four, their largest lead of the night by hitting back to back three pointers. At the seven minute mark C of I would take a one point lead after Pruett knocked down a pair of free throws.
With just over a minute to play EOU led by one as Mumm would go to the free throw line to put the Mountaineers up three, 80-77. On the ensuing possession EOU fouled C of I’s Pruett sending him to the charity stripe where he would knock down both free throws. With C of I down one, the Mountaineers came up short on a jumper and the Yotes responded with a quick rebound and lay-up to put them up one, 81-80, with 28 seconds left to play. After a quick time out by Eastern, EOU’s Brown came out and scored with 7.8 seconds remaining to retake the lead, 82-81. On the final possession C of I inbounded the ball under EOU’s basket and Ben Van Lith would go the full length of the court and score the go ahead basket with 2 seconds on the clock, giving the Yotes an 83-82 victory.
EOU finished the night shooting 29-of-65 (44%) from the field and 12-of-27 (44%) from behind the arc. C of I shot 30-of-57 (52%) from the field and 11-of-21 (52%) from the three-point line.
Eastern will return to play again next Friday, Feb. 15 as they travel to Warner Pac, game time is set for 7:30 pm. Live stats and video will be available at EOUsports.com