SALEM, Ore. – One night after securing a wire-to-wire victory over the Boxers, Corban University's men's basketball team overcame a halftime deficit with a strong second half performance to pick up an 81-64 victory over Pacific University of Oregon Saturday night inside the Stoller Center.
With tonight's result, Corban pushes its winning streak to five games improving to 10-2 overall. In the process, the Navy and Gold also completed a season sweep of the Boxers closing out the home-and-home weekend against its NCAA Division III opponent. Meanwhile, Pacific falls to 2-4 on the season.
Corban was led offensively by
Mateo Escheik with a game- and career-high 18 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field. The sophomore guard also added a pair of rebounds, three assists, and one blocked shot.
The duo of
Kendall Moore and
Denis Kirichenko also scored in double figures with 14 and 11 points, respectively. On the boards,
Mauricio Smith led all players with a game-high eight rebounds to go along with seven boards each by Moore and Kirichenko. Escheik and Moore would combine with
Taylor Anderson to hand out a team-best three assists each for the victorious Warriors.
For the second night in a row, Corban jumped out to a quick lead pulling ahead by seven points (12-5) on a lay-in by
Isiah Quintero with 16:32 on the clock. Pacific battled back to take the lead (18-16) via a 13-4 run over a four-minute span before the Navy and Gold used a 7-2 run to take a 23-20 lead on a lay-in by Escheik with just under 10 minutes left in the first half. Over the next five minutes, Pacific put together a 15-5 run to take a 35-28 lead on a lay-in by Brennen McNabb with just over three minutes on the clock. With less than a minute left, a jumper by Moore capped Corban's 8-2 to pull within a single point (37-36) at halftime.
The second half saw both teams trade leads in the opening minute before Corban put together a 13-2 run over a span of seven minutes to take a 51-42 lead on a Kirichenko lay-in with just over 12 minutes left. The Navy and Gold pushed its lead to double digits (57-47) with 9:09 on the clock before increasing its lead to a game-high 22 points (77-55) seven minutes later on back-to-back free throws by Anderson. Pacific was able to cut Corban's lead down to 17 points (81-64) at the end of the game, but it was too late as the Warriors picked up the victory pushing their road record to 4-1.
Pacific, who saw 18 players log at least a minute of action, was led by Ethan Moss with 10 points and seven rebounds. Meanwhile, Shawn Cotton, Jr. and Jared Cattell added nine points each. Colin Rardin led all players with a game-high four assists for the Boxers.
As a team, Corban combined to shoot 29-for-59 (49.2%) from the field. The Warriors were also a combined 4-for-14 (28.6%) from beyond the three-point line and 19-of-26 (73.1%) at the free throw line. On the other hand, Pacific was a combined 22-of-66 (33.3%) from the field, 11-of-46 (23.9%) from long distance, and 9-of-16 (56.3%) at the charity stripe.
Corban continues its season-ending eight-game road trip on Tuesday, April 13, heading north to the Rose City to take on fellow Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) member Multnomah University in a non-conference game scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m. in Portland.
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