CALDWELL, Idaho – The Corban University Men's Basketball team had an opportunity to clinch their first road sweep of Eastern Oregon University and The College of Idaho in program history today in southwestern Idaho, yet were unable to come away with a win in the second leg of their weekend trip as the defending NAIA National Champion Yoties secured a 72-52 home win against the Warriors a night after the Dubs upset the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) leading Mountaineers.
"It was a tale of two games this weekend," explained Corban head coach Wayne Mendezona. "We just didn't have the energy, fortitude, or perseverance to capitalize on the opportunities that were in front of us. All the credit goes to College of Idaho, who played a balanced game and had multiple impact players both in their starting lineup and from their bench that contributed greatly to their success. I felt like the players were a little tired from the big win against Eastern last night and just couldn't muster up the energy and tenacity that's needed to beat the defending national champions. We will brush this off as another learning experience and get prepared for a big game against Bushnell early next week."
Corban (8-10, 4-6) kicked off tonight's contest trading buckets with C of I (12-6, 7-3) through the opening three minutes of gameplay before the Yotes rattled off numerous fastbreak buckets and stretched their lead into double-figures ahead of the halftime break, leading by as many as 17 points while the Warrior offense struggled to find the bottom of the bucket.
A three-point bucket to open scoring in the second half, which was their first of the game, was the closest the Navy and Gold would pull to for the remainder of today's matchup, as the Yotes dominated in the paint 40-22 and locked up Corban's offense, holding the Dubs to just a 31.6% field goal percentage and 27.8% from beyond the three-point arc.
Warriors' redshirt junior center Tj Zimmermann led the visiting team in scoring as the only student-athlete in double-figures, scoring 19 points along with three assists and a pair of rebounds. The only other consistent performance of the evening came from graduate student center Oreon Courtney, who hauled in a game-high eight rebounds and added six points with three steals.
For the Yotes, guard Dougie Peoples scored a game-high 22 points and was 7-for-10 from the field, with forwards Rey Johnston and Tucker Tiddens combining for 27 points and 12 rebounds. Guard Utrillo Morris dealt out a team-high eight assists, yet turned the ball over five times to average out his assist-turnover ratio.
With the first half of CCC play now firmly in the rearview window, the Warriors will turn their attention to the final ten games scheduled in the 2025-26 regular season, beginning on Tuesday, January 20th when they travel to I-5 rival Bushnell University (8-9, 5-5) for a 7:30pm tipoff.
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