PORTLAND, Ore. - The Lions had their work cut out for them on Friday night, facing No. 3 College of Idaho at Jim Skagen Court. Though the Lions (11-11, 4-9 CCC) got off to a hot start, the night belonged to the Yotes as they topped the Lions in an 84-74 victory. The Yotes continued their historic season and improved their record to 21-3, including a perfect 14-0 CCC, which is the best start in Cascade Conference history.
Justin Martin gave the Lions an excellent first half, scoring 20 before the break and leading MU on a 10-0 run to put Multnomah up 40-26 with just over four minutes to go in the first half.
However the Yotes would not give in and Jake Bruner responded with an 8-0 run of his own, and at the half the Lions lead was cut to only six points at 44-38.
The Lions maintained the lead until there was just over ten minutes to go in the game, then the Yotes proceeded to hold the Lions to just one basket for the next eight minutes. C of I had a 43-31 edge on the glass – including 17 offensive boards and worked hard for their 84-74 victory.
The Yotes were getting scoring contributions from their entire rotation, including seven players scoring 8 points or more. Jake Bruner led the way with a double-double of 21 points and 10 rebounds followed by Ivory Miles-Williams who scored 14. Talon Pinckney and Jalen Galloway each scored 10, while Nate Bruneel and Conner Desaulniers each scored 9 and Ricardo Time scored 8 of his own as well.
The Lions got 29 points from the nation's leading scorer
Justin Martin, and Martin crossed 2,500 career points including from his time at Wenatchee Community College and Multnomah. The Lions also got 16 points from
Zach Richardson.
Jaeden Ingram posted a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds, while
Stepan Zavydovskyy grabbed 6 boards and blocked 5 shots.
Tomorrow night the Lions will face off against Eastern Oregon University at 7:30 PM.