NAMPA, Idaho – The United Heritage Mayor's Cup will remain in Caldwell after a 68-66 win by College of Idaho over Northwest Nazarene University on Wednesday night in the exhibition tilt between the two local rivals.
College of Idaho led for nearly the entire contest as they were in the lead 37:12 of the contest compared to :34 by NNU.
The Yotes were paced by a 20-point effort by
Samaje Morgan, who made 8 of 13 shots from the field. He was joined in double figures by
Drew Wyman, who made a pair of 3-pointers on his way to 12 points. College of Idaho shot 51.9% (27-for-52) from the field and 42.9% (6-for-14) beyond the 3-point line. The Yotes made 8 of 11 free throws for 72.7%.
The Nighthawks were able to land three in double figures with Gabriel Murphy and Christian Rose with 16 and Ryzin Bergersen adding 11. NNU was held to 37% (10-for-27) shooting from the field in the first 20 minutes and came back to shoot 53.6% (15-for-28) in the final 20 minutes. NNU made 10 of 18 free throws for 55.6% in the loss.
Down 11-10 with 15:47 left in the opening half, Morgan hit a jumper on a fast break to put the visitors back ahead for the remainder of the contest. The Yotes stretched the lead to as much as nine in the first 20 minutes. College of Idaho went into halftime with a 36-28. A lead at halftime has been a recipe for success as the Yotes are 4-0 when they lead at the halftime break.
Coming out of the intermission, College of Idaho stretched the lead to 13, 41-28, on a
Johnny Radford jumper and a 3-pointer by Wyman just a minute into the second half. The Nighthawks would not go away as they went on a 16-4 run, culminating with a three-point play by Gabriel Murphy to make it 45-44 with 14:13 left in the contest. Next, a three-point play by the Yotes'
Paul Wilson took the momentum away from the home team.
Again, NNU made another run after C of I built a 10-point lead, 59-49 on a Wyman jumper with 7:30 left in the contest. The Nighthawks went on a 9-0 run to make it a one-point game for the second time in the half. To silence the run, Morgan made his only 3-pointer of the game to make a 62-58 game with 3:31.
The win keeps the Mayor's Cup marks the first back-to-back series sweep for the Yotes since 2013-14 and 2014-15.
Next, College of Idaho will host Eastern Oregon on Saturday at 5 p.m.
