KENNEWICK — The Clark College men’s basketball team moved onto the Northwest Athletic Conference championship game after defeating Green River 55-41 on Monday.
The Penguins (24-6) will face No. 1-ranked Edmonds (27-5) at 8 p.m. today in their first championship appearance since 1996.
Clark’s Bryan Berg and Antony Dunn both lead the team with 10 points each. (Click here for complete boxscore)
“We talked about coming out stronger at the half,” Dunn said. “And that’s what we did. Now we get to move on.”
The Penguins ended the first-half leading 27-21. Clark’s Hayden Hall lead the team with six points in the first-half (finishing with nine). The shots came as some key three-pointers late in the first half.
“We didn’t come out offensively like we wanted to,” Hall said. “But we sure showed up with our defense and held them to 21 in the first half.”
Green River had 20 turnovers, while Clark had 14. The Penguins shot 44.7 percent from the field, while Green River shot 34.9 from the field.
“It wasn’t our prettiest performance,” Clark coach Alex Kirk said. “But we played hard out there. These guys gave a great effort and came out on top.”
Penguins have faced the Gators twice this season, splitting the encounters 1-1.
Clark’s largest lead of the night came in the second half 49-27, a 22 point differential, as the Penguins held their opponents to those 27 points for almost 6 minutes.
Edmonds took down the Peninsula Pirates 69-57 in the first semifinal Monday.
“I’m looking for the same outcome for tomorrow,” Kirk said. “The Penguins are coming back to play hard.”
