LA GRANDE, Ore. – Corban shook up the Cascade Conference Men's Basketball Championships presented by U.S. Bank Wednesday when it became the first No. 8 seed in 10 years to get through the quarterfinal round and the first CCC team this season to hand one of the top-four seeds a home loss.
To keep their season alive in Saturday's semifinals, the Warriors would need to pull off another shocker at second-seeded Eastern Oregon in La Grande. Meanwhile, 140 miles east down Interstate 84, third-seeded College of Idaho will host fourth-seeded Oregon Tech in Caldwell in a rubber match between two teams that were part of a three-way tie for second place during the regular season.
Both games tip off at 7 p.m. local time. Fans can follow the action on the tournament homepage and visit CCCWEBTV for live webcasts. The winners will meet Tuesday on the higher seed's home floor with the CCC's second automatic bid to the NAIA Division II Championships on the line.
No. 8 Corban (16-15, 8-12) at No. 2 Eastern Oregon (23-7, 15-5 CCC)
7 p.m. PST – La Grande, Ore. – Quinn Coliseum
Seeking their first-ever CCC tournament crown and their first appearance in the title game since 2011, the 13th-ranked Mountaineers will look to extend a 14-game home winning streak. They cruised through the quarterfinals, defeating No. 7-seed Warner Pacific 84-58 by hitting 12 3-pointers – Max McCullough went 5-of-8 downtown and scored a team-high 19 points – and holding the Knights to a 2-of-25 effort.
EOU comes in as the seventh-highest scoring team in the nation (90.8 per game) behind a pair of senior stars – forward Bryan McGriff, who ranks first in the CCC in scoring (21.3) and second in rebounding (9.6); and guard Kentrell Washington, who ranks 10th in scoring (14.8), fifth in rebounding (7.4) and ninth in assists (4.0). The pair combined for 99 points on 58-percent shooting in two regular-season meetings with Corban.
The Warriors, whose last tournament title was captured 15 years ago, earned their first quarterfinal win since 2011 by knocking off top-seeded and sixth-ranked Northwest Christian in convincing fashion, 105-76. Jeremiah Harris led a bench that scored 55 points with a team-high 22, and the Warriors shot 56 percent for their first road win in over a month. Chris Martin, another reserve, leads the team at 14.4 points per game; poing guard AJ Monterossi averages 12.9 points and 4.1 assists; and forward Joel Johnson, the most efficient scorer in the nation at 69 percent from the field, adds 12.8 points and 6.4 boards.
EOU took both regular-season matchups – 118-107 on Dec. 16 in La Grande, and 84-72 on Jan. 22 in Salem. The teams last met in the postseason in the 2012 quarterfinals, a 75-62 EOU win.
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