12/1/07: Eastern Men Dominate in Opener

December 1, 2007

Coach Ryan Looney may have got the best start he could have asked from his team Friday night in La Grande. The Eastern Oregon men led all forty minutes, once by as much as 21 in the second half, before going on to beat Southern Oregon (4-6) (0-1), 84-64.

Eastern (7-1) (1-0) once again had six players in double figures, something that’s become familiar at Eastern Oregon. The Mountaineers were led by Josh Landsverk with 19 points.

Jeremy Templeton and Kyle Janke had 13 and 12 points for the Mountaineers, while Mark and Paul Carollo each added 11 points for EOU. Dan Blanchard also came off the bench with ten points.

Eastern led at the half 44-30, after shooting a remarkable 56.3 percent from the field. The Mountaineers then outscored the Raiders by six in the second half, 40-34. EOU finished the game shooting 51 percent from the field, just above their 50 percent average on the season.

EOU’s teamwork was the key stat Friday night; the Mounties had 23 assists to Southern’s seven. Eastern committed 19 turnovers to the Raiders 17.

Matt Cowell led Southern scorers with 14 points, Eli Thornton and Trenton Fraser added 13 and ten points.

Eastern faces its toughest challenge of the season Saturday night in La Grande when 11th ranked Oregon Tech comes to Quinn Coliseum. Tech enters the game on a five game win-streak after beating the College of Idaho Friday night, 73-68.

The series split last season with EOU easily winning 87-72 in La Grande on January 12, and OIT hanging on to win in Klamath Falls 78-69 on February 10.

The Owls currently lead the conference in scoring offense (90.2 ppg) and are second in scoring defense (66.4). OIT are in the top half of 16 of the 18 statistical categories in the CCC.

Tech’s Ryan Fiegi is currently sixth in the conference in scoring at 18.6 ppg and Christian Cavanaugh is tied for seventh with Mark Carollo in the conference in scoring at 17.9 ppg.