LA GRANDE, Ore. – Despite a week of inclement weather, the Geoducks of The Evergreen State College were able to make the trip to snowy La Grande for a CCC matchup with the Mountaineers on Friday evening. Eastern Oregon's hot shooting paired with a dominant showing on the glass led to a 105-80 victory for Eastern. With the win the Mountaineers advance to 6-11 on the year and 5-6 in conference play. The loss drops the Geoducks to 3-12 overall and 2-8 in CCC action.
From the opening tip-off, Eastern Oregon set the tone, scoring 51 points in the first half and adding another 54 in the second. The team's well-balanced offense was led by standout performances from
Garrett Hawkes, who contributed 23 points, and
Adam Orr, who added 15 points. The Mountaineers' sharpshooting was evident, with a 55.3% field goal percentage for the entire game.
Evergreen relied heavily on Mubarak Michael who put up 20 points on an efficient 8-11 shooting. The junior went 4-6 from deep as well. Lane Kennedy was the only other Geoduck to break double digits with 10 points.
The first half saw an impressive display of three-point shooting, with Eastern connecting on 42.1% of their attempts. The second half continued the trend, with an impressive 61.1% success rate from beyond the arc.
AJ Huddleston continued his hot shooting, making 3 out of 7 three-point attempts.
Defensively Evergreen was arguably the better squad on the night forcing 16 EOU turnovers and while racking up 7 steals.
Rebounding played a crucial role in Eastern Oregon's victory, with a total of 49 rebounds compared to Evergreen's 30. Eastern's two big men, Brennan Newsom and
Kamal Muhammad both stood out with 8 and 11 rebounds, respectively.
The Mountaineers now turn their sights to Northwest University. EOU will take on the 4-12 Eagles tomorrow night in Quinn Coliseum. Tipoff is schedule for 5 p.m.
