LA GRANDE, Ore. – The Corban University men's basketball continued its historic run in the 2017 Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) Tournament on Saturday evening, pulling off yet another upset of a top-15 team in the NAIA, downing No. 13 Eastern Oregon University, 100-90, The win puts the Warriors in the CCC Tournament Championship game for the first time since 2002.
 "I am extremely proud of the effort and energy the guys brought tonight," said Corban head coach Austin Johnson. "It was our second-straight road game against a top-15 team in a hostile environment, and our guys weathered the ups and downs against a great EOU team. At the end of the day, it's about making shots and getting stops, and we did that enough to get the win."
Corban first had to defeat the No. 1 seed, Northwest Christian University, and the Warriors blew past the Beacons in dominant fashion on Wednesday evening before then taking down No. 2-seeded EOU on Saturday night. The Warriors scored 100+ points on both of the conference's top-two seeds in the historic triumphs.
AJ Monterossi had himself a career evening for the Warriors, once again dictating the pace of the game all evening long en route to scoring 32 points on a 13-for-21 shooting effort. For Monterossi, it marked the most points he had ever scored in a CCC Tournament contest.
Much of the first half was back and forth, but the Warriors pulled away late in the stanza and used a 23-13 run to close the half to take a 13-point lead into the locker rooms at 53-40.
In the second stanza, EOU tried to make runs, but for every run the Mountaineers made, the Warriors had the answer, whether through a long-range effort from a number of Warriors, or via a clutch basket from Monterossi.
The Navy and Gold ended up leading by as many as 22 points in the second stanza en route to scoring over 100 points for the second-straight game, downing the Mountaineers by 10 points on their home floor. Corban shot 50.8% for the game overall while going 43.8% from downtown, all the while holding EOU (23-8) to just a 42.7% overall shooting mark and a 29.6% shooting effort from beyond the arc.
Monterossi's performance was a historic one for the Warriors, and he also dished out two assists and grabbed three boards to go with one steal in the win. Jake Love also came through for Corban, tallying 19 points on a 5-for-10 shooting mark, while Chris Martin totaled 16 points, leading the way for the Warriors with a trio of long-range efforts made.
Corban has now made a three-pointer in 997 consecutive games, the longest streak in the NAIA.
"AJ was special tonight, and the supporting cast was a huge help in crunch time," said Johnson. "We'll prepare for another big game against an extremely tough OIT team."
Corban (17-15) will play at Oregon Tech on Tuesday evening in the CCC Tournament Championship contest, with the winner earning the CCC's second automatic berth to the NAIA National Championships. Tipoff on Tuesday is set for 7 p.m.
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