LEWISTON, Idaho – Corban Univeristy claimed the 2025-26 Cascade Collegiate Conference Men's Basketball Tournament Champion Title, Presented by U.S. Bank, to take home the Danny Miles Tournament Trophy.
On February 20th, the Corban University Men's Basketball team sauntered back to their western Idaho hotel after being handed a 23-point road loss to then No. 22-ranked Lewis-Clark State College, just six nights after being trounced on their home floor by forty points to the eventual co-regular season Cascade Collegiate Conference champions alongside LC State, the Eastern Oregon University Mountaineers. After clinching the No. 7-seed in the 2026 CCC Tournament on the last possible day of the regular season, the Navy and Gold avenged all prior trials, tribulations, challenges, and difficulties with their third-consecutive postseason road win, this one an 87-84 overtime victory back in Lewiston against the now No. 23-ranked Warriors of Lewis-Clark State in the CCC Championship matchup. This is the third Corban men's basketball team's third CCC Tournament Championship victory in the past ten seasons and first since the 2021 spring tourney format. With tonight's victory, Corban has clinched the CCC's second automatic bid into the 2026 NAIA National Tournament, which is set to begin on March 13th and 14th with Opening Round matchups across the country.
"The team tonight was prepared, focused, and ready to do whatever needed to be done to put themselves in a position to win this championship game," began Warriors' head coach Wayne Mendezona shortly after clinching the conference title in his first season as head coach. "I couldn't be prouder of every single player on the team from top to bottom. Each of them has been a vital part in contributing to the success that we had tonight and throughout the season so far. We can now boldly say both now and forever we are the Cascade Conference tournament champs for 2026. I'm just very grateful for each and every player on this team and the momentous accomplishment that they achieved. Tonight is something that will live and stay with them forever. They had the heart of a champion all season long, and now they can say that they are champions! Go Warriors!"
Just last night, the Corban men's basketball team (17-14) watched the women's program clinch their first CCC Tournament title in a nearly twenty years back on Tim Hills Court via a dominant 57-38 thrashing of the LC State women's team, with the men cheering them on from Lewiston as they prepared to face yet another Pacific Northwest juggernaut. Having already bounced the No. 2-seeded Mountaineers, tonight's matchup would represent the fourth matchup with either of the CCC's regular season co-champions in just over two weeks' time.
As opposed to in their most recent meeting within the P1FCU Activity Center, the two Warrior squads played one of the biggest back-and-forth tennis matches across the country this season to date on the hardwood, as there were 18 lead changes and 15 ties forced across the OT contest, with the largest lead of the night represented by Corban's 18-11 lead with over 12 minutes still remaining in the first half. The Dubs led for a majority of the first half before a late LC State rally where the home team scored points on seven-straight possessions to end the half flipped a growing lead into a 41-39 halftime deficit.
A majority of the lead changes would come over the first 15 minutes in the second half, as neither bench was willing to break under the championship pressure, especially the hometown Warriors playing for their second net-cutting ceremony in a two week span. With Corban clinging to a three-point lead, LC State guard Jamare' Childs buried a 29-foot three-pointer to knot the contest at 60-all, yet was immediately answered when redshirt senior guards Anjay Cortez and Nikola Milosevic sunk back-to-back triples of their own. The two teams exchanged buckets the remainder of regulation, with LC hoisting a buzzer-beating opportunity and coming up short. Redshirt junior center Tj Zimmermann scored the game-tying layup with three seconds remaining in the contest, effectively forcing overtime as he continued to execute one of the best games of his collegiate career.
Zimmermann and junior guard Joe Gould netted the first seven points for Corban in overtime to put the Dubs up four points with under a minute to play, with Cortez stretching the lead to six following his own free throws. A desperation three-pointer following an offensive board by Lewis-Clark State put the hosts within a bucket, but freshman guard Landon Knox once again put the team on his back at the free throw line, sinking the free throws that would ultimately ice the game despite LC State once again getting off a deep three-point heave at the horn that fell well short of the rim. Until tonight's result, Corban was 0-for-2 this season in overtime periods.
A 30-point explosion from Zimmermann paced the Navy and Gold offense, with the big man hauling in eight rebounds and dishing out a pair of assists along the way. Gould, who has been just as dangerous offensively as he is defensively for the Dubs as of late, added 18 points with seven boards and a team-high three assists, while redshirt junior guard Clyde Harris Jr. and Cortez added 14 and 13 points, respectively, and six rebounds apiece.
LC State forward Brayson Hunt was the primary offensive threat for the title game hosts, as he scored 22 points off the bench after going 9-for-12 from the field. All-Conference guard John Lustig added 19 points, eight boards, and five assists, while both guards Dylan Skaife and Brandon Suber scored 12 points each.
Mendezona carried on regarding his individual player efforts by sharing. "Tj was an unstoppable force tonight and was going to do everything in his power to keep us from losing. He hit big shot after big shot and made the right passes to players for key buckets and hit clutch free throws at the end of the game. Joe was sensational again at both ends of the floor and without him we would not have been able to pull this off tremendous feat. CJ was quite literally all over the place and he is the heart and soul of our team in terms of possessing a spirit of perseverance and a never-give-up-attitude. CJ made big play after play whether it was on the defensive end, getting a key rebound, hitting big threes or making unselfish plays and going after every offensive rebound possible. He was at an all-time All-Star level. Anjay played one of his most steady games of the year and he was so critical time and time again making big clutch plays down the stretch, hitting huge free throws and getting big rebounds that were so needed to pull us through to victory. Oreon, Benett, and Oreon all did a fantastic job on the defensive end and were a huge part of our success. Nico was an unsung hero in tonight's conference championship, as he played one of his best games of the year on both ends of the floor and was the best I've seen him play and contributing at this kind of level that is going to help our team continue to be strong as we head into the national tournament. Can't forget to mention Landon, as the freshman clutch player came in and hit two critical free throws to basically seal the game."
With the second of two automatic bids to the national tourney from the CCC now secured, the Warriors will await their Opening Round fate, as they will travel to one of the 16 host sites from across the country for the first two rounds of the NAIA National Tournament. The 2026 NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament Selection Show will be released on Thursday, March 5th at 6pm PT on the NAIA's YouTube channel.