Eastern Wins 21st of the Season

2.16.07

La Grande Ore.  When The Eastern Oregon University Mountaineer Men's Basketball Team (21-7, 12-6) set their goals for the season getting to 21 wins was right towards the top of the list. Friday night in La Grande Eastern accomplished that goal defeating the 14th ranked Albertson College Coyotes (19-6, 13-5) 78-75.

It was just two seasons ago that the Mounties finished the year with an abysmal 4-22 record. Now in Ryan Looney's 3rd season this team has tied the school record for most wins in a season with 21.

Playing in his final home game, senior Derek Brown scored a team-high 16 points including a thunderous dunk down the stretch that helped propel the Mounties to victory. Brown also hauled in 7 rebounds and recorded 2 blocked shots.

Junior Mark Carollo scored 15 points on 6-9 shooting before fouling out with minutes to go and sophomore point guard Jeremy Templeton tallied 14 points knocking down 4 of his 7 attempts. Eleven of those points came in the first half. Fellow sophomore Paul Carollo recorded his 12th double-double of the season, scoring 11 points and grabbing a game-high 14 boards.

Tanner McIntosh and Neil Fryer were saddled with foul trouble for much of the game. The sophomores managed to finish the contest with 8 points a piece.

Vernon Copper who, along with Derek Brown, played in his final home game finished with just 2 points but provided much needed defensive intensity. The senior from Portland helped hold the Coyotes 15 points below their season average of 90.

In an interesting twist of fate EOU could now travel to Caldwell to face Albertson in the first round of the Cascade Conference Tournament on Wednesday night. The Eastern Oregon Athletic Department would provide a booster bus for fans to travel over and see the action.