BOX SCORE

KIRKLAND, Wash. – The No. 13 Eastern Oregon University men's basketball team picked up a huge road win at No. 18 Northwest University Friday, 85-72.

The Mountaineers (22-5) (13-4) were led by Thomas McCarthy's 15 points. The senior matched the EOU school-record for three-pointers made in a season. McCarthy equaled Ryan Orton's 15-year-old record of 88 three-pointers in a season. McCarthy has made 183 of his 466 three-point attempts. Mark Carollo holds the career school mark when he made 210 of his 606 shots from behind the arc.

The undersized Mountaineers outrebounded Northwest, 33 to 17, in the second half and 53-41 in the game. In a battle for the second spot in the Cascade Collegiate Conference standings in the final weekend of the regular season, EOU moved one-game closer to securing the No. 2 seed in the CCC tournament.

After missing their first shot of the game, Eastern Oregon then hit seven straight baskets to take an early 16-7 lead. NU missed its first six shots of the contest. With EOU leading 17-9 at the 14:17 mark, Northwest chipped away at the Mountaineers' lead and Michael Greene's layup in the paint made it a one point game, 19-18, with 11:38 left in the first half.

Eastern Oregon maintained the lead until the 8:56 mark when Ahmaad Cook tip in a missed shot to put the Eagles in front, 22-21. The Eagles then scored seven straight points to lead 29-21 capped off by a Greg Peters' dunk. A three-point play by Rich Skillman stretched the NU lead to 10 points, 32-22, with 4:35 left in the first half. Jordan Call made one of two free throws to increase their lead to 33-22 with four minutes to go until the half.

Cook tipped in his own miss with 2:03 to play in the first half to increase the Northwest lead to 39-26. Eastern battled back and scored the next six points capped off by a driving layup by Anthony Brown to cut the Eagles' lead to seven, 39-32, as the half would end.

Eastern Oregon outscored the Eagles 9-2 to begin the half to tie the score at 41-41 with 17:10 left in regulation. Greg George would break the Northwest scoring drought with his basket to put the Eagles back into the lead, 43-41, and a three-pointer by Stedman Richardson would increase their lead to five, 46-41 at the 15:59 mark. NU held onto the lead for the next four minutes until EOU hit six shots while Northwest missed four straight to take a 58-55 lead with 9:42 left.

George tied the game again at 60-60 with 8:04 to go, but a pair of Jamar Johnson free throws and a three-pointer by McCarthy gave EOU a five point lead, 65-60 with 7:36 remaining in the game. The Mountaineers watched their lead grow to 12 points, 77-65 with 2:09 to go on Tavares Peterson's free throws. Eastern then made six of its eight free throws down the stretch to pull out the win.

Johnson finished with his second double-double, scoring 12 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Brown added 14 points and eight rebounds, and Cody Thurmond had 11 points and four assists. EOU shot 43 percent from the field, and made 18 of its 26 free throws. The leader in NAIA Div. 2 in three-pointers made per game and total threes made, finished 9 of 26 from behind the perimeter Friday.

Northwest outscored Eastern, 36-30, in the paint, but it was the Mountaineers that had a 15-4 fast break point advantage. The last three games EOU has rallied from 11-point, 14-point, and 13-point deficits to earn victories. Eastern Oregon extends the longest win streak in the conference to six games.

Northwest (19-7) (11-6) was led by Cook's 20 points. Skillman added 17 points and Michael Greene had 11 points. Peters had a team-high eight rebounds and Cook threw five assists. The Eagles finished 35 percent shooting from the field, 7 of 27 from three-point range, and 11 of 19 from the free-throw line.

The Mountaineers travel to Olympia, Wash. to face The Evergreen State College to finish regular season play Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The Geoducks (8-19) (5-12) are fighting for the final spot in the conference tournament. TESC had its rally fall short Friday night in a 76-74 loss to The College of Idaho. Saturday's game will have live video, radio, and stats on EOUSports.com.