Box Score KIRKLAND, Wash. – In a game with everything riding on it as far as post-season play was concerned, the host Northwest University (Wash.) Eagles came out on top of Multnomah University 83-68 Saturday night here at the NU Pavilion, denying the Lions their first-ever appearance in the Cascade Collegiate Conference Men's Basketball Tournament.
One night after making a season-high 22 three-pointers out of 44 attempts, the Lions found themselves trumped at their own game by the Eagles, at least in the first half. Northwest connected on 8-of-17 threes (.471) in the opening 20 minutes while Multnomah struggled, making only 3-of-15 (.200) from long distance. The Eagles used threes by Joseph Stack and Kaelan Hicks to jump out to a 6-0 lead and never trailed. After a trey by
Darius Redrick put the Lions on the board, the Eagles got three more threes, one by Stack and two more by Hicks, in a 20-6 run that stretched the margin to 26-9 with 11:33 left in the half.
Two free throws and a layup by
Trey Fountain, a jumper by
Brett Blackstock, and a three by
DJ Ahana pulled the Lions back within 12 at 30-18 with 7:50 left. That was as close as the visitors got as the Eagles built an 18-point lead of 38-20 on a Tanner Davis three at the 4:38 mark, and the home team led 47-32 at the break after shooting .559 (19-34) from the field to .323 (10-31) for the Lions.
Three times the Lions cut the deficit to 12 early in the second half, the last at 53-41 on a layup by Redrick three minutes in. Northwest was never threatened thereafter, however, as the Eagles extended the lead to 21 at 69-48 on a Josh Meyer basket with 9:22 left, and a 9-0 run a short while later made it 78-51 with 6:08 to go, effectively deciding the contest.
--- By the Numbers: Redrick closed out his Multnomah career with a team-high 20 points and five assists, while Blackstock contributed 16 points.
Ben Grandle just missed a double-double with nine points and a team-leading nine rebounds. The Lions finished with a .354 shooting percentage (23-65), including a .275 mark (11-40) on threes, but were perfect from the line (11-11).
Hicks paced the Eagles with 20 points on 8-of-9 shooting, going 4-for-5 on threes, and Justice Martion added 16. The Eagles wound up with a red-hot .569 field goal percentage (33-58), though they missed all of their threes in the second half (0-6). Christian Hakilimali's 12 rebounds led NU to a huge 46-24 margin on the boards, and he also passed out five assists.
Multnomah finished 9-21 on the season and ninth at 5-15 in the CCC, its best record in three years in the conference. Northwest is now 13-7 overall and 7-13 in the league, earning the eighth spot in the tournament, and will travel to play the top-seeded College of Idaho Wednesday in the first round.
--- Quoting MU coach Curt Bickley: "Very proud of a team that never quit and established a culture of competitiveness that we did not have before. Our seniors did a great job establishing that culture. I am very proud that we competed to the last game."
