LA GRANDE, Ore. – The Corban University men's basketball team drained 12 long-range efforts on Friday and almost completed a late second-half comeback, but the Warriors fell three points short, losing to Eastern Oregon University, 75-72.

"We took one on the chin tonight," said Corban head coach Mitch Freeman. "Our guys battled and bought into what we needed to do defensively. In the second half, we were too inconsistent on the offensive end and were not able to put pressure on their defensive effort. Long travel tonight with a short turnaround tomorrow – we will need to put this behind us quickly as we face a very good C of I team tomorrow night."

A back and forth first 20 minutes saw the teams enter the locker rooms all tied at 34.

In the second half, the Mountaineers were able to gain the advantage and led by as many as 11 points about midway through. The Warriors hit some big three-pointers late to pull back to within a one-possession game on a couple of occasions, but ultimately it was not enough and EOU prevailed.

AJ Hodges was efficient all night long, scoring a team-best 14 points on a 4-for-7 shooting mark, including nailing three shows from downtown. Jaxon Hughes nailed four shots from deep and totaled 13 points in the loss, while Beau Roggenbach was the only other Warrior in double-figures with 10 points.

The Warriors shots 42.1% overall and 38.7% from deep. In addition, Corban was efficient from the charity stripe with a 12-for-15 effort. On the other end, EOU shot 48.2% overall and 42.9% from deep to go with a 12-for-16 effort from the line.

Corban (13-7, 4-6 CCC) returns to action tomorrow when it takes on No. 2-ranked College of Idaho. Tipoff is slated for 6:30 p.m. PST.