SOU-OIT Boxscore

The Southern Oregon University men's basketball team gave top-ranked Oregon Tech all they could handle before falling 91-81 tonight in a non-conference game in Klamath Falls.

Oregon Tech is now 8-0 on the season. Southern Oregon dropped to 2-3 overall. Both teams will take part in this weekend's Flagship Inn Classic at SOU's McNeal Pavilion on Friday and Saturday. Oregon Tech faces The Masters College at 5:30 p.m. Friday and SOU hosts Simpson University at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, Oregon Tech will battle Simpson at 5:30 p.m. and SOU takes on The Masters College at 7:30 p.m.

A three-point play by Austin Wolfer (Woodburn, Ore./Woodburn) gave SOU its first lead at 50-49 with 17:31 but Oregon Tech quickly got the lead back and then pushed it to 53-50 after the Raiders were whistled for their fourth offensive foul of the game.

The Raiders had the OIT lead down to two at 57-55 after a pair of Jarrad Childs (Paso Robles, Calif./Paso Robles) free throws, but OIT again was quick to answer and following a turnover, the Owls had the lead up to 61-55.

Senior Eli Thornton (Victorville, Calif./Victorville) nailed a jumper at the 5:00 mark to cut the Tech lead to 78-73 and the lead was down to four at 79-75 after a Kory Mahr basket.

The defending National Champs pushed the lead to 85-75 with three straight jumpers by Josh Wetzler.

SOU made a final run with under a minute to play as Josh McDermott (Ashland, Ore./Ashland)'s layup with 46 seconds left had the lead down to 85-79 and a layup by Thornton trimmed it to 86-81 with 22 seconds remaining.

The Owls' Jguwon Hogges and Justin Parnell iced the game with late free throws.

Christian Cavanaugh led Oregon Tech with 20 points and 11 rebounds.

Mahr led four Raiders in double-digit scoring with 14 points. Thornton finished with 13 points, Childs had 12 and McDermott had 10 for SOU.