LA GRANDE, Ore. – Eastern Oregon University had to come from behind and eventually win on a last second shot Friday night to take down the visiting Beacons. A last second tip in from
Preston Chandler put the Mounties over Bushnell, 76-74. With the win Eastern advances to 16-9 overall and 13-6 in CCC play while the Beacons drop to 11-14 and 9-10 respectively.
Bushnell came out with something to prove Friday evening leading the Mounties for a large majority of the first half. It seemed like a game of cat and mouse as Bushnell extended a lead only for the Mounties to whittle it down before the Beacons jumped back out to another extended lead. When the dust settled in the first half the Beacons led 41-35 on the back of Cory Johnson's nine points.
Eastern found several sparks in the second half starting with a
Preston Chandler jam for the first score. A few moments later a flurry of
Adam Orr shots resulted in an EOU lead as the grad student put up 11 points in under three minutes to put EOU up 52-47 at the 13:25 mark. The Mounties continued to stoke the fire while momentum continued to gain with a couple of transition dunks from
Slade Dill and
Justin Jeske.
Bushnell refused to roll over, fighting their way back into it thanks to some heavy lifting by Spencer Hoffman who put up 15 second-half points. It was all even at 74 with just 12 seconds on the clock after Hoffman worked his way to the rim for two. With the game on the line,
Phillip Malatare whipped a pass to
Justin Jeske who couldn't get a last second lay-in to drop, but it didn't matter as
Preston Chandler was on the other side waiting for the tip-in which he successfully put up as time expired. Chandler's bucket gave the Mounties a 76-74 win.
EOU will look to carry that momentum into tomorrow night's matchup with Corban University. The Mounties will take on the Warriors in Quinn Coliseum starting at 5 p.m.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Second chance points swung the game in the Mounties favor who were able to pup up 25 points off of offensive rebounds
- Free throw shooting nearly cost EOU who went 7-13 at the line
- Bushnell got strong offensive production off the bench scoring 30 bench points thanks to Cory Johnson and Isaac Girley who had 13 each
STANDOUT PERFORMANCES
- EOU
- BU
- Spencer Hoffman: 19 PTS, 8-11 FG, 10 REB, 2 AST
- Cory Johnson: 13 PTS, 5-10 FG, 8 REB, 1 AST
