CALDWELL, Idaho – The No. 4 ranked College of Idaho won their twentieth game of the season and grabbed sole possession of first place in the Cascade Collegiate Conference with a 79-67 win over Oregon Tech, inside the J.A. Albertson Activities Center.
The Coyotes (20-3, 9-2) opened the game on an 8-0 run, getting baskets from four different players in the first three minutes.
The Owls (12-9, 5-6) trailed by as many as 11 points in the opening period but cut the deficit to three points at the half on a Van Kirk layup to end the period.
The closest OIT came to catching and passing the Coyotes came in the opening play of the second half as Austen Flint hit a jumper to cut the Yote lead to one point.
Although the Coyotes led for 38:25 of the game and never trailed, OIT hung around until back-to-back Demetrius Perkins triples with six-minutes to go to separate the teams for good.
C of I pushed the lead to 15 points in the final minute as Oregon Tech began to foul the Coyotes and force them to knock down free throws.
Perkins finished the contest with a game-high 22 points on just 13 shots. Three other Coyotes reached double-figures in scoring as Marko Kovacevic recorded his second double-double of the weekend, scoring 12 points while pulling down 11 rebounds. Sydney Donaldson flirted with a double-double, scoring 12 points and grabbing 8 rebounds; Joey Nebeker scored ten points while playing a team high 33 minutes.
In the win, Josh Wilson scored eight points and pulled down ten rebounds but had his streak of recording a steal in 31-straight games snapped.
The Coyotes pushed their home-court winning streak to 29 games as Scott Garson improved his record inside the state of Idaho to 37-0, including two exhibition wins last year in Nampa.
C of I will be back in action next weekend when they travel to Portland for a pair of games against ranked teams, meeting No. 12 Concordia, Friday at 7:30 p.m. (PT) and No. 18 Warner Pacific, Saturday.
NOTES- All three teams ranked above the Yotes in the latest NAIA Division II Coaches Poll all lost this week as No. 1 Indiana Wesleyan fell to No. 8 Bethel, 88-85. No. 2 Embry-Riddle fell to Thomas 77-70, and No. 3 Dakota Wesleyan got beat by No.9 Midland 76-52.
"The entire College of Idaho family and the Yotes men's basketball program's hearts go out to the Ingersoll and Tucker families with the loss of Zach tonight. A year ago, the Caldwell community raised money on this very weekend to support Zach Ingersoll and his fight against cancer; he was able to fight for an entire year since then," head coach Scott Garson said. "He will be missed by many in the community as he was taken way too soon."
