BOX SCORE
LA GRANDE, Ore.—Shooting .633 percent in the first half, Eastern Oregon mounted as much as a 21-point lead midway through the period en route to defeating Concordia 93-80 in the opening round of the Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament on Wednesday.
With the win, Eastern Oregon (22-7) will host Warner Pacific in the CCC semifinals on February 27. Concordia ends its season with a 15-15 overall record.
Eastern Oregon led wire-to-wire after scoring the first seven points of the game. Behind a pair of jumpers from senior
Alex Tiefenthaler, the Cavaliers responded with six straight of their own to get back to within a single point, but the Mountaineers would march along with a 27-6 outburst to go up by 21 points with 6:57 remaining in the half.
Trailing by 18 with three minutes to go in the period, CU utilized a 11-5 run which was highlighted by a pair of
Drew Preuninger treys to cut the deficit to an even dozen points at the half with the score 49-37.
Out of the break, Preuninger and
Greg McFarland hit back-to-back buckets, including a fouled three pointer and a follow-up free throw by Preuninger to slice the lead to eight points, 53-45, early in the second half.
From that moment, EOU retaliated with a 25-6 outburst to claim a 27-point lead, the largest of the game, with just over 10 minutes to play.
After reclaiming the 27-point margin with 5:23 to play, the Cavaliers outscored the Mountaineers 20-6 through the final five minutes of action to eventually fall by the 13-point spread.
Each team had five players register at least 10 points in the contest with Tiefenthaler leading the way with 13 points on 6-of-17 shooting.
Kevan West and
Jason Holzwarth each had 12 off the bench with Holzwarth knocking down 4-of-7 shots from beyond the thee-point arc.
Starting guards Preuninger and
Jeff Sego each finished with 10 points.
EOU was paced by 17 points from Stafford, 16 from Josh Landsverk and 15 from Cody Thurmond.
For the game, EOU shot .547 percent from the field to .429 for the visiting Cavaliers. The Mountaineers also enjoyed a slim edge in rebounds with a 39-34 tally.