Eastern Eagles Run Afoul Of The Mighty O’Quinn Cs Northridge Hits Free Throws To Bounce Ewu In Overtime

Cal State Northridge took advantage of deadly free-throw shooting and a career effort by senior forward Mike O’Quinn Monday night to make sure Eastern Washington’s first Big Sky Conference tournament appearance in eight years was a one-nighter.

O’Quinn scored a tournament-record 39 points and pulled down 15 rebounds, and the sixth-seeded Matadors made their final 17 free throws in slipping past the third-seeded Eagles 104-98 in overtime.

The first-round win lifted Northridge (12-15) into tonight’s semifinals against second-seeded Weber State (14-12). The other semifinal will pit top-seeded host Northern Arizona (19-7) against fifth-seeded Montana State (18-10), a 68-60 winner over Montana Thursday night in the Walkup Skydome, Northern Arizona’s home arena.

Eastern closed its remarkable turnaround season at 16-11, despite productive offensive nights from Karim Scott and Shannon Taylor, who each scored 28 points.

“I’m proud for our seniors and happy for our season,” Eagles coach Steve Aggers while trying to mask his disappointment. “This program will be back. You haven’t heard the last of us.

“It took eight years to get back to this tournament, but we’re going to get home, work in the weight room, get our young guys going and get back here.”

But if Eastern is going to make any real noise, it will have to learn how to defend in the low post against the kind of quickness O’Quinn possesses.

The 6-foot-6, 215-pounder made 12 of 18 field-goal tries and 12 of 15 free throws in breaking the previous tournament scoring record of 34, held by four different players. And he helped foul out three Eastern starters late in the game.

“We just couldn’t stop him in the second half and overtime,” Aggers said. “He clearly had an outstanding night.”

It helped, too, that several of O’Quinn’s teammates got hot from the outside, making it nearly impossible to double-team down low. Northridge made 10 of 23 3-pointers to help take the pressure off O’Quinn.

Carl Holmes finished with 15 points and Brian Heinle added 14 for a Matador team playing its fourth game without Jabari Simmons, one of its top scorers and rebounders, who quit late last month because of personal reasons.

O’Quinn said he felt the loss of Simmons was one more reason he needed to respond.

“I just felt there was a point where I needed to step up and be a senior in difficult times,” he explained. “We’ve been through a lot of difficulty, but we’ve stuck together. And at times like this we need to be the closest.”

O’Quinn certainly wasn’t the only hero. Reserve point guard Lucky Grundy, who started the overtime period on the bench, made six of Northridge’s last eight free throws.

Eastern wasn’t lacking for effort, either, but the Eagles certainly were no match for the Matadors at the foul line - especially in the second half when they made just 15 of 28 free throws.

It became obvious early that the game would be decided on the foul line. And when Eastern’s collective free-throw touch left the building at halftime, its hopes of advancing left with it.

Officials called a tournament-record 64 fouls, most of them away from the ball, and fouled out five players. Northridge shot 48 free throws, also a tournament record.

CS Northridge 104, EWU 98

CS Northridge (12-15) - O’Quinn 12-18 12-15 39, Parris 2-4 5-8 9, K. Taylor 1-1 6-8 8, Cross 3-13 1-1 8, Holmes 4-13 4-4 15, Minor 1-5 0-0 3, Grundy 1-4 6-8 8, Heinle 5-7 2-4 14, Harper 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 29-66 36-48 104.

Eastern Washington (16-11) - Berger 0-3 0-0 0, Scott 10-20 8-12 28, K. Lewis 0-1 0-0 0, Williams 6-18 3-5 17, M. Lewis 2-7 2-2 6, Taylor 9-19 3-6 28, Sims 0-1 0-0 0, White 5-5 3-4 13, Humbert 1-2 4-7 6, McGee 0-0 0-0 0, Claus 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 33-76 23-36 98.

Halftime-E. Washington 45, CS Northridge 39. 3-Point goals-CS Northridge 10-23 (O’Quinn 3-4, Holmes 3-5, Heinle 2-3, Minor 1-3, Cross 1-7, Grundy 0-1), E. Washington 9-26 (S. Taylor 7-14, Williams 2-6, Berger 0-1, Scott 0-2, M. Lewis 0-3). Fouled out-M. Lewis, Sims, S. Taylor, K. Taylor. Rebounds-CS Northridge 52 (O’Quinn 15), E. Washington 38 (White 8). Assists-CS Northridge 11 (O’Quinn, Cross 4), E. Washington 10 (Williams 7). Total fouls-CS Northridge 30, E. Washington 34. Technical-O’Quinn. A-1,212.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ON TV Today: Big Sky Conference semifinals, 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m./FSN