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NU Turns Back Upset Minded Beacons

EUGENE, Ore. – The NU Eagle men held off a determined Northwest Christian team tonight for a low scoring, 55-49 conference win and post their 19th victory of the season.

Northwest would take the early lead to start the half but five straight points by Northwest Christian’s Wyatt Taboh-Graziano would give the Beacons a 13-8 lead with 13:41 left on the clock. With NCU leading 17-11, Ryan Dornik would drain a 3 pointer and follow that with a free throw to make it 17-15 at the 5:54 mark. Michael Russo would then hit a jumper to tie the game at 17-all but NCU would answer as Greg Shepard would hit his jumper. Dornik would then give the Eagles the lead with his 3 pointer to put NU into the lead 20-19 with 4:51 showing on the clock. Taboh-Graziano would score four of the final six Beacon points of the half to put NCU 27-22 as the teams headed into halftime.

The Eagles came out of halftime fast and went on an 11-2 run as Michael Greene would score on two straight lay ins to cap it off at the 17:47 mark to put NU into the lead, 30-29. The lead would hold the remainder of the game but not without a challenge from the Beacons. Each time the Eagles would put a little distance between the two teams, NCU would come back to make the game close. Michael Russo would hit a 3 pointer to put NU up 51-45 with 5:36 remaining, but NCU’s Trevor Parker would hit a driving layup to make it 51-47 with 5:12 left in the contest. Greene would put the Eagles up 53-47 with 2:03 on the clock, but Jordan Buhler’s jumper would close the gap to 53-49 at the 2 minutes mark. Greene would answer with a drive and nice assist to Nemanja Grujicic for a layup from the left side with 1:39 to go for the final of 55-49 as neither team would score the rest of the way.

Four Eagles would finish in double figures for Northwest U. (19-4, 9-2 CCC) led by Michael Greene’s 17 points and 10 rebounds for another double-double for the 6-5 junior. Senior Ryan Dornik scored 15 points, sophomore Michael Russo 11 points and 6-8 sophomore Nemanja Grujicic also recorded a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. NU shot 44% for the night and out rebounded NCU 40-31 with 13 of those offensive boards.

Northwest Christian (8-15, 2-9 CCC) was led by Wyatt Taboh-Graziano’s 15 points, all scored in the first half. Jordan Buhler added 14 points and led the Beacons with 8 rebounds. NCU shot 37% on the night and managed only 13% from the free throw line (1-8). Only a total of 17 fouls were called for the game.

Said Eagle coach, John Van Dyke, “We had another tough road game tonight and our guys responded well in the second half. As we continue to grow as a team, it is neat to see us win games with our defense and rebounding. Good to see us respond to the challenge of playing on the road in the conference.”

No. 15 ranked Northwest U. returns home to host No. 1 ranked Eastern Oregon in a big game next Friday night followed by the College of Idaho on Saturday.

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Posted on Saturday, January 19, 2013 Share on Facebook