CALDWELL, Idaho – A dominant performance by the No. 9-ranked team in the NAIA lifted The College of Idaho to their fourth-straight Cascade Conference Tournament championship game, as the Coyotes rolled past Warner Pacific, 97-64, inside the J.A. Albertson Activities Center.
The Coyotes (28-4) ran their win streak to nine games and will play host to No. 5-seed Southern Oregon on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. SOU advanced win their second-straight upset, as a Tez Allen banked-in 3-pointer inside the final second lifted the Raiders to a 67-66 victory at Lewis-Clark State.
C of I's game was the complete opposite, as the Yotes rode a 23-point night from
Ricardo Time to the home win. The senior scored 13 of the Coyotes first 17 points, including a trio of 3-pointers in the 17-4 run over the first six minutes of the contest.
A 3-point play from
Drew Wyman and consecutive transition triples from
Derek Wadsworth and Time extended the lead to 34-14, with the Coyotes taking a 45-26 lead to the locker room.
The seventh-seeded Knights (15-17) used a 7-0 run midway through the second half to cut the deficit to 75-55 – only to have the Yotes blow the game wide open with a 20-4 surge, as Wadsworth started the rally with a triple,
Johnny Radford converted a 3-point play and a
Charles Elzie steal, basket and free throw capping the spurt.
Time finished the night making 5-of-7 3-pointers – as the Yotes made 12 triples in the victory, their fifth-straight game with 10-or-more made 3's.
Jake O'Neil scored 12 points with nine rebounds, Elzie posted 11 points, seven assists and seven steals, Radford scored 11 second half points and
Paul Wilson posted nine rebounds.
C of I converted 52-percent of their field goals in the win and held a 38-28 rebound margin. It marked the Yotes fifth-straight victory by 28-or-more points and their third-straight game scoring 90-or-more points.
Miles Brown led WP with 14 points and Isaac Etter added 13 points in the loss, with the Knights becoming the eighth-straight C of I opponent to fail to reach the 65-point mark.
