Western Oregon Nips Corban in OT, 97-96

WOU had five other players in doubles figures: Schmidt with 19, Jacob Mitchell with 17 and nine rebounds, Travis Kuhns, Mike McLaughlin and Dominque DeWeese with 11.

Photo: Corban Athletics

SALEM - Western Oregon spent most of Tuesday night trying to hold on to a lead, and then battled through an overtime period where they mostly trailed, finally topping Corban College 97-96 in a men’s non-conference basketball contest at CE Jeffers Sports Center.

Ryan Schmidt scored on a fast break basket with just seven seconds left on a dish from Alex Swerzbin to give the Wolves the one-point win.

WOU moved to 1-2 on the season, while Corban dropped its sixth straight to fall to 1-10.

Schmidt’s basket topped a wild night that still wasn’t over until Kyle Masten’s three-pointer at the buzzer missed.

Corban held a one-point lead and had the ball with under 10 seconds to play, but Kevin Van Hook lost the handle, Swerzbin picked it up and led Schmidt to the game winner.

Swerzbin led the Wolves with 21 points and 10 assists.

Masten led the Warriors with 21 points, followed by Jason Braun with 18. Wade Douglas had 13 points and 10 rebounds.

The Wolves probably led for 37 of the game’s 40 regulation minutes, but the host Warriors made a habit of coming back. WOU led by as many as seven points in the first, but trailed at the break (42-41).

The visitors then rushed out to a 10-point lead early in the second half, thanks to eight points and three steals off the bench by DeWeese, but Corban eventually crawled back to tie the game with eight seconds left on a trey by Masten.

The roles were reversed in overtime when Corban took a 94-89 lead on a Van Hook three-pointer with 3:12 left, and the Warriors still led 96-93 with 1:34 to go after a bucket by Braun.

But a shot in the paint by Mitchell with 39 seconds left pulled the Wolves within one point, setting up Schmidt’s game winner.

Western Oregon led for most of the first half, by as many as seven points, but Corban stayed close thanks to 62 percent marksmanship from the field.

With 1:25 to go before the break, Masten tied the game at 39-39 with a three-pointer, and Hannes Gehring gave the Warriors its first lead since early in the contest with another trey with a minute to go.

Alex Swerzbin’s driving lay-up pulled the Wolves to within a point at the halftime buzzer, 42-41.

Swerzbin had 10 points, three assists and three steals at the break.

Both teams shot 55 percent from the field on the night, but WOU hit only 13 of 28 free throw attempts (46 percent). The Wolves nailed 13 three-pointers, and Corban had 14

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