Box Score COLLEGE PLACE, Wash. – A 16-5 run late in the second half, starting and ending with three-pointers by
Brett Blackstock while
Darius Redrick scored all 10 points in between, lifted the Multnomah University Lions to a 75-68 Cascade Collegiate Conference men's basketball win over the host Walla Walla University Wolves Friday afternoon here at Windemuth Court.
Except for an early 2-2 tie and a brief 7-6 Multnomah lead on a
Jon Viles three-pointer at 15:27, the Wolves held the lead for most of the first half and the first seven minutes of the second half. Their largest lead in the first half was nine points at 23-14 on a Michael Isotalo layup with 7:25 left, but the Lions battled back to within two at 27-25 on a three by
Trey Fountain with 1:01 to go. Dylan Browning's layup with 42 seconds left gave Walla Walla a 29-25 lead at the break.
Another trey by Fountain and a dunk by
Ben Grandle twice brought the Lions within a point early in the second half, but the Wolves extended the lead back to six at 42-36 on a triple by Isotalo with 14:45 to go. A 12-2 run, capped by a Blackstock three, gave Multnomah a four-point lead of 48-44 with 11:42 left, and there were five lead changes over the next four-plus minutes before Walla Walla took its final lead of 57-56 on a three by Alec Calloway with 7:14 remaining – and then the Lions went to work.
A three by Blackstock put Multnomah ahead for good 59-57 at the seven-minute mark, and then Redrick took over. In a four-minute span from 6:18 to 4:23, he reeled off a layup, a three, two free throws, and another three. Moments later, Blackstock canned another trey, and the Lions were up 72-61. A
Tyler Walker free throw with 2:27 left upped the gap to 73-61, and the Wolves got no closer than the final score, Roy Zavala's three with a second to go reducing the Lions' winning margin to single digits.
--- By the Numbers: Blackstock led all scorers with 29 points, including seven threes, and paced the Lions with eight rebounds. Redrick and Fountain added 13 points apiece. Multnomah shot .455 (25-55) from the floor, .474 (18-38) from three-point range, while equaling their season high for threes. Rebounding was even at 42-42. Fountain handed out six assists, Redrick five, and Viles and
Beau Shockley blocked two shots each.
Browning had 13 points, Jacob Vargas 12, and Calloway 10 for the Wolves, who were limited to shooting .368 (28-76) overall and .304 (7-23) from long distance. Dinesh Brown had a game-high nine rebounds. Brown, Zavala, and Spencer Woodworth had two assists each, and Brown picked up three steals.
Multnomah improved to 6-15 on the season and 3-9 in the conference with the series sweep, having beaten the Wolves the night before 82-72. Walla Walla fell to 5-17 overall and 1-11 in the league with its 11
th straight loss.
--- Quoting MU coach Curt Bickley: "Darius was great down the stretch, and Brett was on fire. Thirteen threes in the second half was huge. Fun two days."
--- Next: Multnomah returns home to host Southern Oregon University in a CCC game Friday at 7:30 p.m. … Walla Walla visits the College of Idaho Friday for a 3:00 p.m. Mountain time CCC game … Both will be preceded by CCC women's games.
