BOX SCORE

SALEM, Ore. – An 11-2 run over the opening five minutes of the second half along with a strong defensive effort in the final seconds of the game helped propel Corban's men's basketball team to a 75-71 Cascade Collegiate Conference victory over Evergreen Friday inside the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center.

"Tonight's win feels great," said head coach Steve Masten. "The guys have been working extremely hard this week, as they have been learning a lot of difficult lessons the last few weeks and I saw a lot of progress tonight. Evergreen is a team that is athletic and has some really strong guys that are very, very scrappy. We knew that we were going to be in for a battle tonight and I'm proud of the way that the guys fought throughout the entire game. The key for us tonight was that we came out at the start of both halves and played with a lot of intensity and that was the difference tonight."

Corban (4-6, 1-1 CCC) was led by a trio of players – freshman Caleb Herzberg, junior Jordan Carter, and freshman Toby Roth – that scored in double figures with 18, 14, and 13 points, respectively. All eight Warriors that saw action scored at least four points, as senior Josiah Sebens and sophomore Cyrus Ward chipped in with nine and seven points, respectively. On the boards, Sebens pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds to go along with a game-high six assists.

Evergreen (1-9, 0-3 CCC) was led offensively by Dre Taylor with a game-high 21 points off the Geoducks' bench, while three other ESC players – Frankie Johnson, Marc Taylor, and Kyle Calhoun – provided 13, 11, and 10 points, respectively. On the glass, Taylor led Evergreen with seven rebounds with Johnson dishing out a team-high five assists for the Geoducks.

The first half would begin with a back-and-forth battle over the opening seven minutes, as Evergreen built a four-point lead (15-11) on a jumper by Johnson with 12:45 on the clock. Over the next five minutes, Corban used a 14-6 run en route to earning a four-point lead (25-21) of its own following back-to-back fast break lay-ins by Carter with the final one coming at the 7:06 mark. The host Warriors would continue to hold the lead for the remainder of the first half, as Corban extended its margin to as much as five points (38-33) on a three-pointer by Herzberg with 48 seconds left. Evergreen's Taylor would close out the first half scoring on a lay-in, as the Warriors held a three-point cushion (38-35) at halftime.

Over the opening four-plus minutes of the second half, Corban held Evergreen without a point en route to building a 46-35 lead before the Warriors pushed their margin to 12 points (49-37) thanks to the aforementioned run that concluded on a three-pointer by freshman Ernst Kruger with 15:01 on the clock. Evergreen would never back down, as the Geoducks used a 15-5 run over a span of six minutes to pull within four points (56-52) on an old-fashion three-point play by Taylor with 9:07 left. An 8-2 run by Corban over the next two minutes would result in a 64-54 lead for the home team, as Carter hit a pair of free throws with just over seven minutes left to extend the Warriors' lead back to double digits. Over the next five-plus minutes, Evergreen used a 17-8 run to pull within a single point (72-71) on back-to-back free throws by Johnson with 1:23 remaining. A free throw by Roth would push Corban's lead to 73-71 before Evergreen missed a pair of shots and committed a turnover in the final minute of the game, as Roth nailed a pair of free throws with 0.3 seconds left for the final tally of 75-71.

As a team, Corban combined to shoot 24-for-51 (47.1%) from the field that included an 8-for-19 (42.1%) showing from beyond the three-point line and a 19-for-28 (67.9%) performance at the free throw line. On the other hand, Evergreen was a combined 25-for-65 (38.5%) from the field, 6-for-25 (24.0%) from long distance, and 15-of-24 (62.5%) at the charity stripe.

Corban will return to the hardwood tomorrow – Saturday, December 21st – against the NAIA's No. 17-ranked Eagles of Northwest beginning at approximately 7:30 p.m. inside the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center in Salem.