Mid Valley Reporter

RV Warrior Men’s Basketball Sends Knights Packing with 73-63 Road Quarterfinal Victory

"That's exactly who we wanted," Corban Men's Basketball Head Coach Taylor Kelly shared late last Saturday night after learning they had drawn the No. 4-seeded Warner Pacific University Knights in the opening round of the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) Tournament, and he held by that statement this evening as the No. 5-seeded Warriors (20-9, 15-7) righted the ship against the Knights (18-10, 15-7) to overcome their two losses to them in the regular season with a 73-63 quarterfinal victory on WPU's home court.

"Tonight's game was a gritty win for our guys on the road against a team we felt we let some games slip against this year," Kelly said after his team earned the program's first 20-win season in five years and the first of his tenure with Corban.

"Our guys played hard and guarded how we know we are capable of. We had some tremendous efforts on defense all night long. We are just thankful to keep our season alive and keep this group together. Excited to see how our group plays in the semifinals of this tourney," Kelly continued.

The Knights kicked off the contest exactly how they started the first two games against the Warriors this year, fast paced and consistently hitting their shots. Warner Pac's 3-2 zone offense caused early issues on the offensive end for Corban, forcing them to shoot from beyond the three-point arc instead of getting the post players setup in the paint.

Seven of the Navy and Gold's first nine shots were from deep, something they haven't been accustomed to seeing throughout the year. With ten minutes remaining in the first half, the Warriors had sunk just 2-of-9 three-pointers, as their offense is primarily designed around all aspects of the floor, not specifically from around the arc on an up-down basis.

Over the next ten minutes, the Navy and Gold slowly chipped away at the Knights' double-digit lead, eventually taking the lead on a midrange jumper from junior guard Taylor Anderson, 26-25 with less than three minutes remaining. The Warriors' defense held Warner Pacific without a field goal for the final 7:40 of the first half, a scoring drought that allowed them to take a 30-25 lead into the halftime break.

In the first half alone, Corban coughed up the ball an unnecessary 11 times, allowing the Knights to score seven points off those turnovers. However, despite four less team turnovers, Warner Pac allowed ten points to the Warriors, a stat that needed to be watched through the remainder of this contest.

The Navy and Gold were led in the opening half by junior guard Collin Warmouth, who scored eight points on 3-for-4 shooting. Junior guard Reece Van Lierop and senior forward James Carlson each added six as well. Meanwhile, Knights' guard Thomas Miles scored a then game-high 10 points to open the contest, earning multiple trips to the free throw line.

The competitiveness continued to grow over the next several minutes of the second half, as both teams exchanged basket-for-basket and wouldn't led the Warrior lead grow more than six-points until the first media timeout.

It didn't take long for the Knights to jump back into this contest, as Miles splashed a corner three-pointer with the shot clock winding down, followed by a fastbreak layup from forward Darius Traylor that put the scoreboard at 43-42 in favor of Corban.

Much to the approval of the Warrior Nation fans that traveled the hour north for the game, Van Lierop stood strong in the lane and took two charges that forced fouls on to important WPU players, hitting multiple three-pointers as well to earn a double-digit lead of their own. However, the Knights refused to go away without a fight on their home court, chipping the lead back down to single digits on a breakaway layup from guard Dakota Reber.

After Miles and the Warner Pac made a slight push to pull within two possessions, the Warriors made back-to-back hustle plays to earn a trip to the free throw line to score two, followed by a forced turnover and easy layup for junior guard Andrew Stafford, with the scoreboard now reading 58-49 in Corban's favor.

As time continued to dwindle, big men Henderson and Carlson connected for a massive three-pointer out of a pair of free throws for WPU, with the latter big man connecting on his first attempt of the evening from behind the arc. Miles ran down the court and forced another foul to hit a pair of shots from the charity line, but time was quickly escaping for the hometown Knights.

Down by multiple possessions now, Warner Pac had to pray for a last ditch effort of fouling and hoping Corban would miss their free throws, but the Warriors missed only two down the stretch to right their demons and finally defeat the Knights this season, 73-63 at C.C. Perry Gym.

That turnover margin and points off turnovers proved to be vital for the Navy and Gold, scoring 19 total points off 15 errors by the Knights, whereas Warner Pac only scored 11 points off a game-high 17 turnovers from the visiting squad. Corban also benefited from the bench players getting involved on the offensive end, scoring 22 points from bench players compared to just six for the Knights.

Anderson logged an impressive double-double with a team-high 16 points and 10 rebounds for the 5'10 guard, while Henderson followed right behind with 11 points and nine rebounds. Van Lierop also added 11 points, was responsible for half of the team's bench points, and drew two crucial offensive charges that swung the momentum back into the Warriors' favor.

After starting hot from the court for the third-straight game against Corban, Warner Pacific finally hit their cold streak at the wrong time, shooting under 40% from the field and an even more surprising 13.3% from behind the three-point arc. They cooked the Warriors with 40% or more from three-point range in their previous two contests but managed just three buckets in their postseason matchup.

Miles was one of only two Knights to have a decent performance, scoring a game-high 28 points, hauling in five rebounds, and nabbing four steals. The most consistent effort came from Traylor, who logged a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double and added five steals in his final collegiate game. The rest of the WPU lineup managed to score just 20 points, as the "lean on me" approach of each position stepping up when another suffers finally came to an end in the Warriors 18-10 season finish.

The Corban Men's Basketball team now faces the grueling challenge of traveling to Caldwell, Idaho for the second time in three weeks, as they'll look to pull off the upset of the season at No. 1-ranked and seeded College of Idaho (28-1, 22-0) in the CCC Tourney semifinal round, after the Yotes downed Bushnell University 87-70 on their home court earlier tonight. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30pm MST on Friday, February 24th.

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