Box Score LA GRANDE, Ore. – In a contested battle, the Eastern Oregon University men's basketball team held on to defeat Warner Pacific College, 72-66, Friday evening at Quinn Coliseum.

Eastern Oregon had three players score in double figures led by Tony Eackles Jr. with 18 points. Trevor Phillips followed with 16 points and Kyllian Wood added 11. Michael Hall led the Knights with 16 points.

EOU raced out to an early 5-0 lead over the Knights to start the contest. However, the Mountaineers offense started to slow down and the Knights heated up as EOU had its five point lead disappear. With 14:39 left in the first half EOU found itself down 9-8.

The Mountaineers looked as if they were going to start pulling away and went on a 7-2 run to take a 15-11 lead but the Knights answered right back to take a one point lead, 17-16 after a Hall jumper. Eastern Oregon did not trail long as Eackles hit a three pointer to start a 9-0 run to put EOU ahead by 8 points, 25-17.

EOU continued to add to its lead and grew its lead to 12 points, 42-30, to go into halftime.

The Knights started to mount a comeback early in the second half as they slowly chipped away at EOU's lead. The Mountaineers lead was down to five points, 47-42, after a Marcus Moore three pointer. Warner Pacific continued to attack and cut the EOU lead down to two points, 53-51, after a Michael Moreland jumper with 7:33 to go in the contest.

The Mountaineers answered back and scored the next four points, to extend its lead back to six points, 57-51. The Knights would not let the Mountaineers pull too far away and after EOU had a seven point lead, 60-53, the Knights trimmed it to three points, 60-57, after five straight points by Garrett Strasburg.

The three points would be the closest the Knights would get for the remainder of the contest as Eastern Oregon secured the victory from the free throw line.

COMING UP: Warner Pacific travels to Caldwell, Idaho, to face College of Idaho tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. MT.


Story courtesty of EOU Sports Information