By Harry Cummins
Multnomah sophomore Zach Richardson scored a season-high 32 points on 10 made 3's and teammate Stepan Zavydovskyy pulled down 15 rebounds and blocked a NAIA season-best and school record 12 shots, leading the Lions to a convincing 113-81 win over a road-weary University of Maine Ft Kent basketball team Saturday afternoon.
Richardson has now made 40 3 point baskets in Multnomah's first 9 games and moves within five long range baskets of teammate and national Div-2 leader Justin Martin, who has 45. Richardson (17.1 ppg) is now shooting an impressive 48% from distance on the season. His 32 points against UMFK came in just a little over a half of play, as Lions coach Curt Bickley was able to give significant minutes to ten different players in the win, moving MU's record to 6-3 on the year.
Zavydovskyy narrowly missed a 'triple-double' as he scored 8 points to go with his 15 boards and 12 blocks. He now moves into second place in current NAIA D-2 stats in blocks per game. Martin, the nation's leading scorer, contributed a fine all-around game to the win, scoring 22 points to go with 9 assists and 5 steals. Martin is attempting to lead the country in both points and assists as he is averaging nearly 8 assists per game to go with his NAIA leading 32 ppg.
Forrest Smith also filled the stat sheet for the victors, scoring 15 points, with 7 rebounds, 5 steals, and 3 assists. The Lions recorded 18 steals on the afternoon as the visiting Bengals from Ft Kent, Maine were playing their 5th game of a winless 8-day West Coast road swing through California and Oregon.
Multnomah now concludes the pre-conference part of their schedule, and will begin Cascade Collegiate Conference play next weekend. It is the first of 5 straight games on the road for the Lions.
The Lions, for the second consecutive year, are the highest scoring team in the NAIA D-2, averaging 105.3 ppg this season. The second highest scoring team in the NAIA this season? It's the Eastern Oregon Mountaineers, Multnomah's opponent next week at Quinn Coliseum in La Grande,Oregon in a high-octane conference opener.
Notes: Multnomah established a 2019-20 NAIA season high vs UMFK by launching a record 66 shot attempts from 3 point range!
