SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster men's basketball team overcame a 15-point second half deficit to take an 87-84 win over Eastern Oregon in an exhibition game for the Griffins on Friday night.
 
Westminster trailed for over 34 minutes on the night and were behind 61-46 with 17:13 to play in the second half. The Griffins capped an 18-7 run with nine straight points to pull within 68-64 at the 10:19 mark.
 
Zerrion Payton converted an and-one with 7:28 remaining to tie the game at 73-73. After Eastern Oregon (5-2) went back up by three, Dayon Goodman scored in the paint and Casey Evans hit a three and Westminster led 80-78 with 3:23 to play.
 
Tied at 84-84, Goodman scored at the rim to put the Griffins in front for good with 28.7 seconds on the clock. Marcus Bryce then blocked a shot by the Mountaineers and Westminster forced a turnover to secure the win.
 
The Griffins had three players reach the 20-point plateau in the win. Goodman and Payton had 21 points apiece with Bryce adding 20. Goodman scored 19 of his total in the second half to counter the 18 from Bryce in the first half.
 
Westminster finished the game shooting 46.3 percent from the floor and they recorded 15 assists and only 10 turnovers. After Eastern Oregon shot 57.6 percent with eight threes in the first half, they finished the game at 44.6 percent with 12 triples.
 
The home squad converted 92 percent at the foul line and outscored the Mountaineers 50-24 in the paint. They had a 40-35 edge on the boards with 14 points from 12 offensive rebounds.
 
Eastern Oregon reached out to its big lead during a 19-6 run in the first half where they hit 4 of 5 from beyond the arc. They got 29 points from Bryan McGriff, but only five after halftime.
 
The Griffins will complete the weekend tournament ton Saturday with a 6 p.m. MST game against Bristol. Eastern Oregon will face California Miramar at 4 p.m. MST to start the day. Tickets for both games are available at WestminsterGriffins.com/tickets.