BOX SCORE
PORTLAND, Ore. -- The No. 2-ranked Oregon Tech Hustlin’ Owls defeated Concordia 99-77 on Friday night to clinch the Cascade Collegiate Conference’s No. 1 automatic bid to the NAIA Division II men’s national basketball tournament .
Regardless of what happens tomorrow night in conference play, OIT holds all of the tiebreakers so will head into the postseason as at the least the regular season CCC co-champions.
Oregon Tech (25-4, 14-3 CCC) concludes the regular season at Warner Pacific, and the Knights not only must beat the Hustlin’ Owls, but hope The Evergreen State can win at Eastern Oregon to move WPC into a tie for second place in the league. Concordia (15-13, 5-12 CCC) will end its regular season at home against Southern Oregon.
Concordia took an early lead, but the hot-shooting Owls were able to open up a 52-42 halftime lead. The hustlin' Owls shot 66 percent from the floor in the first half and 59 percent for the game.
Myles Daley paced the Tech with 19 points, with Joseph Foster (18), Mike Nieraeth (15) and Scott Riddle (11) also scoring in double figures.
For the Cavaliers,
Alex Tiefenthaler scored 19 points, with
Drew Preuninger (12),
Jourdan Sweeney (12) and
Kevan West (10) also scoring in double figures. Sweeney also had a game-high seven rebounds.
Even with the loss, the Cavaliers clinched a postseason playoff berth when Southern Oregon lost to Warner Pacific, 83-66.