LA GRANDE, Ore. – The Bushnell University men's basketball team held off a late comeback to earn an 82-75 road win over Eastern Oregon University on Friday evening in Cascade Collegiate Conference action.
 
Head Coach Eddie Alexander said, "I could not be prouder of how we executed tonight in key moments. We lost our momentum late in the game, but guys fought through some tough calls and big buckets by EOU. Our young guys are getting better on defense and our recent additions, Keishon and Isaac, are finding ways to immediately contribute on both ends of the court."
 
Eastern Oregon (13-10, 7-8 CCC) defeated the Beacons 97-74 in the Morse Center in their first-round matchup on Jan. 1, but Bushnell (8-14, 6-9) proved that they are a different team than they were just a few weeks ago. The Beacons have now won three straight over opponents they had lost to earlier in the season.
 
The Beacons brought a 41-37 lead into halftime as neither team led by more than six in the period.
 
A 13-3 run by the Beacons through the opening six and a half minutes of the second half extended their lead to 54-40. Bushnell led 65-49, a 16-point advantage, with seven and a half minutes to go before the momentum started to shift in favor of Eastern Oregon. The Mountaineers scored the next seven to get back within single digits.
 
A pair of free throws from Stevie Schlabach pushed the Bushnell lead back out to 67-56 before the Mountaineers used another run, this time 7-1, to get within five. Luke Smith broke EOU's momentum with a three and Schlabach made another pair of free throws to put the Beacons back up by double-digits, 73-63 with three minutes to go. EOU was within six with 43 seconds on the clock following a three-point play from the CCC leading scorer, Phillip Malatare, but that would be as close as they would get.
    
It was a balanced scoring effort for the Beacons tonight, with 10 players getting at least three points on the scoreboard. Six Beacons hit at least one three as the team finished 7-of-13 from beyond the arc.     
 
Schlabach finished with 16 points to lead the Beacons in scoring. Keishon Dawkins recorded 14 points and five rebounds. Jarrett Bryant added nine points and led the Beacons in rebounding with six. Drayton Caoile and Nico Wolff also posted nine points apiece.
 
Bushnell finished with 11 turnovers, while EOU had 17. For comparison, the Mountaineers committed just one turnover in the last contest between the sides.  
 
Malatare led all scorers with 22 points for Eastern Oregon. Paul Pennington scored 14 points off the bench, while Xavier Lovelace grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
 
"We are continually learning more each game on how to play together with our expanded rotation," said Alexander. "Hopefully we can keep the momentum going into a tough game with C of I tomorrow."
 
The Beacons and Yotes tip off at 5 p.m. (MDT) on Saturday in Caldwell.