SALEM, Ore. – A back-and-forth game of momentum eventually fell in the home team's favor tonight on Tim Hills Court, as the Corban University Men's Basketball team clinched a season sweep of Warner Pacific University behind an 87-70 final score that featured five lead changes and four ties across a rollercoaster of offensive cadence. After falling to the Knights in Portland last season, the Warriors gutted out a 17-point home win today to clinch a 2-0 record against Warner Pac in 2025-26 and a sixth win in the past seven matchups.
After coasting to an eight-point advantage midway through the first half, the Warriors (9-11, 5-7) began to lose their footing offensively and allowed the Knights (5-15, 1-11) an opportunity to flip the scoreboard in their favor with an 18-4 run to lead by six with five minutes to play prior to the halftime horn. However, the Navy and Gold scored eight-straight points over the course of a 90 second period, but a three-pointer from Warner Pac to end the period allowed both programs a hard reset for the final period, knotted at 41 points apiece.
The momentum continued to exchange between team benches through the first ten minutes of the second half, with Corban holding a one-point edge entering the final fourth of regulation. A 10-0 run by the Dubs, with a backcourt steal and flush from redshirt senior guard Anjay Cortez representing the exclamation mark, forced the Knights into taking unwarranted three-point shots to climb back into this contest and instead, never pulled to within five points or fewer for the remainder of the evening, allowing the Navy and Gold to secure their fifth Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) win of the season.
A 17-point, 10-rebound double-double performance by graduate student forward Oreon Courtney powered the Navy and Gold back on the attack in the second half despite playing only 24 minutes, with redshirt junior center Tj Zimmermann adding a game-high 18 points with eight rebounds and a pair of assists. Three more Warriors scored exactly ten points to provide the Dubs with five student-athletes in double-figures, represented by junior guard Joe Gould, redshirt junior guard Clyde Harris Jr, and freshman guard Landon Knox.
A pair of 15-point outings from Knights' forwards Josh Lincoln and Jurrien Sparks allowed the visitors to hang tough with Corban through three-fourths of tonight's matchup, with Lincoln falling just two boards shy of a double-double of his own while guard Nzube Mekkam pitched in 14 points off the bench.
The Warriors will look to extract some road revenge next Friday, January 30th in Olympia, Washington, as they look to avenge their home loss to The Evergreen State College (3-11, 3-9) from earlier this month at 7:30pm within the Costantino Recreation Center.
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