SALEM, Ore. – A feisty Wolves program entered tonight's final regular season matchup for the Corban University Men's Basketball team looking to pull off an upset on the Warriors' Senior Night, yet backed by their nine senior student-athletes, Corban emerged victorious 70-60 in a second half come-from-behind effort. With the victory, the Navy and Gold clinch the sixth-overall seed in the upcoming Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) Tournament, presented by U.S. Bank.

"What a fun way to send our seniors out," Corban head coach Taylor Kelly expressed after the long night of basketball had come to a close on Tim Hills Court. "Jared played with great aggression and made a ton of winning plays, and Luc rebounded and defended at an extremely high clip. I'm so proud of the seniors in our program and the way they've represented our university all year long."

A 20-minute gap between the women's and men's contests this evening was filled with the celebration of nine separate Corban seniors being honored in front of Warrior Nation, which included: graduate student center Aashay Verma, senior guard Drayton Caoile, senior guard RJ Veliz, senior guard Luc Krsytkowiak, senior forward Devean Hinton, junior guard Andrew Classen, junior guard Carter Knox, senior forward Jared Franklin, and redshirt junior guard Nikola Milosevic.

The Wolves' (4-22, 3-19) determination and grit forced the Warriors (15-13, 13-9) to fight for every basket in tonight's matchup, with the visiting team even leading as both programs entered the halftime break after trading baskets back-and-forth for the entirety of the opening half. However, it was the senior leadership within the Corban men's basketball program that stepped up and secured the victory to end the 2024-25 regular season within the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center.

At the 12:11 mark in the second half, with a narrow one-point lead and coming off a three-point bucket by Walla Walla, the Navy and Gold rattled off an 11-0 run that would eventually prove to be the difference in tonight's contest, as the Wolves were unable to cut the deficit to less than eight points the remainder of the night and allowed Coach Kelly to sub his senior student-athletes in and out at will.

A career night for Franklin in 25 minutes played saw the Tacoma, Washington native drop a team-best 14 points and fell two rebounds shy of a double-double outing with eight boards recorded. Classen was right behind in points scored with 11 in only his second career start for Corban, while sophomore guard Ben Krystkowiak scored 12 points in 20 minutes off the bench. Luc Krystkowiak, older brother to Ben, had a robust statistical night around the court, as he scored six points, hauled in nine rebounds, snagged four steals, and swatted two Walla Walla shots back into the bleachers.

Wolves' center Soren Dalan was extremely difficult for the Warriors to deal with throughout the first half and eventually secured a double-double with 21 points and 10 assists, while matching the eldest Krystkowiak at two blocked shots in his own defensive half. Guard Andrew Vaughn was the only other visiting student-athlete in double-figure scoring with 17 points and two steals.

With the Corban's matchup with Walla Walla having no impact on postseason seeding, the CCC office announced the quarterfinal matchups prior to tonight's contest, which will see an immediate rematch between mascot doppelgangers to be played out in northwestern Idaho early next week. (RV) Lewis-Clark State College (22-6, 17-5) will host the Navy and Gold on Tuesday, February 25th for a 7pm tipoff at the P1FCU Activity Center as the two teams will battle for a third time in 2025 for a spot in the CCC semifinals.

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