Box Score
LA GRANDE, Ore. – The Eastern Oregon University men's basketball team grabbed a 99-93 win over No. 12 Warner Pacific College Friday.
The Mountaineers (17-9, 10-7 Cascade Collegiate Conference) were led by
Trent Roos' 26-point performance. The junior was 6-of-11 from the field, including 5-for-10 from behind the arc, while making all nine of his free-throw attempts.
Jamar Johnson added 24 points, making five of his 11 three-point shots.
As a team, EOU was 15-of-31 from three-point range. The Mountaineers were 50 percent from the field and 20-for-28 from the free-throw line. Eastern outrebounded Warner Pacific, 45-29, and had a 21-3 second chance points advantage.
Anthony Brown added 12 points and nine rebounds for Eastern, which avenged an 89-78 loss at Warner Pacific earlier this season.
Ervin Felder scored 11 points, while grabbing eight rebounds.
In a game that featured seven lead changes, it was the Mountaineers breaking through with a late rally. EOU won for the first time this season when trailing with five minutes left in regulation. Eastern was previously 0-9 in that stat category. The Mountaineers improved to 13-2 when leading at halftime. Friday, EOU had a 48-46 halftime lead.
The Knights (21-7, 13-4) had their largest lead with 6:43 left in regulation by four points. Doug Thomas led WPC with 25 points on 9-14 shooting from field. He was 5-for-7 from behind the arc. William Sharp and Ryan Parks finished with 15 and 12 points respectively. Biniam Tadele and Dane Johnson each scored 10 points.
Warner Pacific entered the game as the country's best assist teams, but it was EOU that had a 25-23 assist advantage.
Cody Thurmond and
Travares Peterson combined for 13 assists, while Dane Johnson and Sharp totaled 15 assists, with Johnson having nine.
The Knights shot 47 percent from the field, 15-of-27 from behind the arc, and 16-for-20 from the free-throw line. WPC travels to The College of Idaho (10-18, 5-12) on the final day of the regular season Saturday.
Eastern Oregon can lock-up the fourth seed in the Cascade Conference tournament with a win Saturday over Concordia (14-14, 6-11), or a Corban loss to Oregon Tech Saturday. EOU holds the tiebreaker over Southern Oregon (16-12, 9-8) following Corban's win over the Raiders Friday.
The top four seeds in the conference tournament host first round games. The CCC tournament begins Wednesday with all tip-offs scheduled for 7 p.m. No. 1 Oregon Tech clinched the conference title for the fourth straight season Friday, thus grabbing the conference's first of two automatic berths into the national tournament.
