| Rafael Moreira gets two points against John Gabriel of CNCC in CEU’s win against CNCC. |
The College of Eastern Utah men’s basketball team defeated the Spartans of Colorado Northwestern 74-90 in game one of the Scenic Western Athletic Conference Region Tournament hosted by the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, Idaho on Thursday.
CNCC jumped to a four nothing lead to start the game which turned out to be their largest lead of the game, but the men of CEU kept their cool and dominated on both ends of the floor to advance to round two. The score was tied five times, and the lead changed three times, all in the first half of the first half.
After that CEU got the lead and kept it for the duration of the game. CEU’s largest lead came with 4:57 left in the game when they were up by 23.
Darington Hobson was questionable because of a knee injury but got the start and led all scorers with 28. Hobson was everywhere, scoring from outside and driving into the paint which kept the defense trying to guess what he would do next.
“It’s tournament time,” said Darington, “I’m playing no matter what.”
Coming off the bench Rafael Moreira got 13 points and nine rebounds. Stephen Franklin and Felix Casperi each had 11 points with Casperi also getting 15 rebounds, including five on the offensive side. Casperi gave a nice all-around effort going four for seven from the field, three for six from the line, 15 rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal.
Kal Bay also got into double-digit scoring with 10 points. Bay drained a couple threes and went a perfect two for two from the line.
CEU dominated in nearly every category. In the paint they outscored CNCC 52-20, points off of turnovers 26-12, second chance points 20-8, fast break points, 10-5, and CEU’s bench outscored CNCC’s 27-24.