BOX SCORE
PORTLAND, Ore. – In the opening round of the 2011 Cascade Collegiate Conference tournament, Corban's men's basketball team pulled off the upset thanks to a 66-59 win over No. 3-seeded Warner Pacific Wednesday inside C.C. Perry Gymnasium.
Coming into the playoffs as the No. 6-seed, the visiting Warriors were the only lower seed to win in the quarterfinals behind a team-high 15 points and 10 rebounds by freshman
Jordan Carter (Salem, Ore.). Over the course of tonight's game, junior
Erik Cronrath (Battle Ground, Wash.) became the 26th player in program history to score 1,000-or-more points in a career adding 14 points to go along with 11 points by fellow junior
Jake Mauermann (Clackamas, Ore.). On the boards, senior
Ian Logan (Aloha, Ore.) grabbed a game-high tying 11 rebounds and fellow senior
Bryan Martin (Salem, Ore.) dished out a game-high five assists in the victory.
Corban quickly came out of the locker room and grabbed a 12-point lead (14-2) over the opening five-plus minutes against the NAIA's No. 18-ranked Warner Pacific, as the run was capped by a Carter three-pointer at the 14:32 mark. The visiting Warriors would continue to hold a double-digit lead over the next seven minutes, as Corban secured an 11-point advantage (23-12) following a Logan free throw with 7:01 on the clock. The host Knights would battle back thanks to a half-closing 14-7 run that cut Warner Pacific's deficit to five points (31-26) at halftime.
The second half would begin with Warner Pacific using a 7-2 run that would knot the game at 33-all with 15:59 on the clock. Over the next nine minutes, Corban used the strength of a 17-7 run en route to grabbing a 10-point lead (50-40) after a Mauermann three-pointer at the 7:08 mark. The host Knights would get as close as three points (51-48) thanks to a Stephen Harris lay-in with 4:29 on the clock before Corban built its lead back to a game-high 12 points (60-48) thanks to a 9-0 run that put the game out of reach following a Carter jumper at the 2:48 mark. Clutch free throw shooting down the stretch would seal the deal for Corban, as the upset-minded Warriors went 6-for-8 at the charity stripe over the final two minutes en route to earning the seven-point win (66-59) over its nationally-ranked opponent.
Webster Moreland led all scorers with a game-high 17 points for Warner Pacific, while Harris was the only other Knight in double figures with 13 points off the bench. Moreland and Harris would each pull down a game-high tying 11 rebounds, while Nick Schultens handed out a team-high three assists for Warner Pacific.
As a team, Corban shot a combined 19-for-62 (30.6%) from the field to go along with a 5-for-22 (22.7%) showing from beyond the three-point line and a 23-for-31 (74.2%) performance at the free throw line. On the other hand, Warner Pacific was a combined 23-for-83 (27.7%) from the field, 3-for-20 (15.0%) from long distance, and 10-for-18 (55.6%) at the charity stripe.
With tonight's result, Corban improves to 18-13 overall and Warner Pacific drops to 19-10 on the season. The Warriors will move onto the semifinals where they will face the NAIA's No. 7-ranked and top-seeded Hustlin' Owls of Oregon Tech on Saturday, February 26th, beginning at 7:00 p.m. on Danny Miles Court in Klamath Falls. Meanwhile, the NAIA's No. 18-ranked Warner Pacific will have to wait until Wednesday, March 2nd, to find out if the Knights will advance to the NAIA Division II National Tournament via an at-large berth.
