FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 26^th, 2024
 
Salem, Ore.| The Knights were up in Salem tonight taking on Corban University. They lost 91-90 in overtime.
 
The game started off on a fever pitch with lots of back and forth basketball. Both teams scoring at will possession after possession with not many defensive stops on both ends. At the 14-minute media timeout, the score was 16-14 in favor of the Warriors. As the first half continued, the game continued to go back and forth with the Knights pulling out to a slim 27-14 margin with 9 minutes remaining. The Knights pulled away to a 9-point lead in the bottom 3^rd of the half but the Warriors came back late making it close again at the half. The Knights went into the half up 42-41. The game so far had seen 3 ties and 7 lead changes.
 
At the half, the leading scorers for the Knights was Maxwell Moses with 14, Matt Solomon with 11, and Josiah Castillo with 8. For the Warriors, they had three players in double figures at the half with the leader of the group being senior guard, Collin Warmouth with 13 points.
 
The Knights scored the first 3 buckets of the first half on two layups by Maxwell Moses bringing his total to 18 points. The Knights to begin the half went on a 21-7 run before the Warriors knew what had happened in the first 5 minutes of the half bringing the Knights lead to 62-49. The Warriors calmed things down from that point on and started to claw back into the game bringing the Knights lead down to 9 with 9:30 left. To this point in the 2^nd half, Chris Murphy made his presence known defensively bringing a lot of juice on that end and contributing a sweet hanging layup to help the squad offensively.
 
The game continued to get very close as the Warriors started to catch fire. They brought the score back to within 3 points with 6 minutes left in the contest behind a couple of alley-oop layup plays by Corban. The Warriors tied the game up when Jay Wilson hit an and-one layup and hit the free throw.
 
The Knights were down 84-79 with 22.7 seconds left when Caleb-Tyree Morgan was fouled shooting a three top of the key. He calmly stepped up to the line drilling all three bringing the lead to 2 for Corban which was followed by a timeout from Knights coach, Jamayne Potts. The Knights on the next inbound play set up in a ¾ court press and it worked forcing the Warriors to step out of bounds giving the Knights a chance with 20.3 seconds left. Out of the timeout, Matt Solomon took a handoff from right to left and layed it in to tie the game at 84 apiece forcing another timeout from Corban. Corban held for the final shot and had a wide open three for the win that just missed the bottom of the bucket sending the game into overtime.
 
The Knights scored the first bucket of overtime on a nice little runner by Sean Johnson middle of the lane. With 23.4 seconds left, the Warriors committed a foul on Matt Solomon with the Knights up 90-88. Solomon missed the 1-1 free throw giving the Warriors a chance with 11.1 left to tie or win the game with a three after their timeout. The Warriors hit a 3 with 3.1 seconds left to win the game 91-90.
 
Next Up
The Knights will go home tonight and then drive to Eugene tomorrow to take on Bushnell at 5pm at Morse Center.