Nov. 26: Free throws cost Raider men

By Sarah Petersen

Ashland Daily Tidings

Coaches always say free throws win games and that's what hurt the Southern Oregon University men's basketball team Saturday night.

The Raiders had their three-game winning streak snapped with a 59-56 loss to Willamette University in the Flagship Inn Classic final at McNeal Pavilion.

The Raiders (3-1), who sought to equal the school's best start since 1948-49, hit on 7 of 17 free throws in the loss. Meanwhile, the Bearcats (2-2) snapped a two-game slide thanks in part to making 18 of 21 at the stripe.

"There really was two things that affected us tonight," Raider head coach Brian McDermott said. "One was they shot better from the free throw line, and two, they executed their offense better than we did. It really isn't any one thing. When we make one mistake everything breaks down. There were too many possessions where we didn't execute."

SOU began the night playing catch up.

Willamette jumped to a 4-0 lead with two easy shots inside the key.

Senior point guard Hamilton Barnes fired a three from the top of the key to jump start the Raider offense.

The two teams then started trading baskets.

Barnes again nailed a three from the top of the key to tie the score at 21.

But the Raider offense came to a halt after that and the Bearcats pounced on the opportunity and went into the half with a 28-23 lead.

SOU battled back from a 35-25 deficit early in the second half to knot the score 43-43 on a layup by freshman center James Tharp with seven minutes remaining.

Willamette responded again and took the lead back for good a minute later on a pair of foul shots by center Miles Sandgathe.

Willamette junior guard Ryan Hepp helped keep SOU at bay with a layup and four consecutive free throws in the final 1:23.

"If I could have hit my free throws maybe things could have been different," Matt Zosel said. "We had some runs that were nice. It's important for us to learn from tonight. We didn't execute our offense. But we'll get better."

Zosel, who transferred from Willamette prior to last season, notched a double-double (14 rebounds, 11 points), while Barnes netted 13 points in his first start of the season.

"Some of the shots I took tonight were pretty lucky," Barnes said. "My teammates set things up for me to score those threes. The rest of the team wasn't shooting all that great so we had to get some things going. We let down offensively and didn't execute. We have a lot of new guys and a lot of good players who are trying to find their roles."

Fourth-ranked Oregon Tech won the tournament championship by downing UC Santa Cruz 101-58 and finished 2-0 in the two-day event.

SOU hits the road for its next five contests starting with a Tuesday clash at Humboldt State.

SOU Women's Basketball

At Arcata, Calif., the Raider women had their two-game winning streak snapped with a 67-52 setback to sister school Western Oregon Saturday night in the Humboldt State Classic.

The Raiders hit on only 6 of 17 shots in the first half and fell behind 34-21 at the intermission.

SOU heated up to 48 percent from the field in the second half but couldn't overcome 39 turnovers as the Wolves cruised to the victory.

Junior Sara Marks led SOU in scoring for the third straight game with 14 points. Forward Melissa Core added 12 points and six rebounds. Junior Kara Magee-Arick came off the bench for 11 points.

Former Eagle Point star Becky Gregory led Western with a game-high 17 points.

The Raiders play at Holy Names Friday night in Oakland.