Men's Basketball: Corban Downs Whitman, 85-71

Corban secures its first win of the young season to move its record to 1-4 overall.

Photo: Corban Athletics

SALEM - Eight different players hit at least one trifecta, as Corban's men's basketball team lit up the nets with a season-high 13 made buckets behind the 3-point line and put its first "W" in the win column thanks to an 85-71 victory over NCAA Division III member Whitman on Saturday.

Sophomore Garrett Kauffman led the barrage from beyond the arc with a 3-for-5 performance en route to scoring 13 points off the bench.

Along with Kauffman, sophomore Kyle Masten, sophomore Jason Braun, and junior Hannes Gehring connected on a pair of triples each. Seniors Nate Morris, Kevin Van Hook, and Brad Reynoso, along with junior J.D. Hill each dialed once from long distance en route to Corban tying the season-high from last season.

Sophomore Wade Douglas led the Warriors with a team-high 16 points on 5-for-8 shooting from the field and 6-for-8 shooting from the free throw line.

Braun and Gehring each tallied 10 points on a combined 6-for-14, including 4-for-8 from beyond the arc. Braun and Hill pulled down a team-high 5 rebounds each, while Douglas and Gehring grabbed 4 boards each.

Corban began the game without a single point for the first five minutes, allowing Whitman to open what seemed to be an insurmountable 10-point advantage.

Fortunately for the Warriors, things began to click following a a driving lay-up by Van Hook with 15:06 remaining in the opening half.

The visiting Missionaries pushed their lead to 11 (15-4) following a Kyle Born lay-in, but that was the largest lead that Whitman would gain before the host Warriors began whittling it down.

Over the next eight-and-a-half minutes, Corban used a 18-7 run to knot the game at 22-all with 5:11 remaining in the first half.

Whitman went back up by a bucket thanks to back-to-back free throws by Born before Corban grabbed its first lead of the game (25-24) following a 3-pointer by Kauffman with 4:41 left in the opening half.

From that point on, the Warriors never relinquished the lead and took a 6-point advantage (37-31) into halftime.

In the opening minutes of the second half, Corban quickly pushed it lead into double digits following back-to-back 3-pointers by Morris and Masten.

The Warriors opened the second half making five straight shots from beyond the arc before cooling off.

Unfortunately for the visiting Missionaries, Corban had extended its lead to 19 (56-37) by that point and coasted in for the 14 points victory, 85-71.

As a team, the Warriors shot 29-for-50 (58.0%) from the field, including 13-for-22 (59.1%) from beyond the 3-point line.

Meanwhile, Whitman struggled all night as they shot 27-for-70 (38.6%) from the field, including 5-for-19 (26.3%) from beyond the arc. T

he two teams combined to shoot 26-for-34 (76.5%) from the free throw line, as Corban connected on 14 and Whitman made 12 shots from the charity stripe.

Whitman was led by Born's game-high 18 points off the bench on 8-for-12 shooting from the field and a game-high 9 rebounds.

Chris Faidley and Garth Brandal added 10 points apiece, while Keefe Piper poured in 9 points to go along with his 7 boards.

The Warriors are back in action on Tuesday, November 21st, when they travel to NCAA Division III member Linfield College beginning at 7:00 PM in McMinnville.

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