Box Score OLYMPIA, Wash. – Eric Thompson (Roseburg, Ore./Roseburg) carried the Southern Oregon University men's basketball team for 38 minutes Friday night against Evergreen State. With the game on the line, David Sturner (Philomath, Ore./Philomath) and Tim Weber (Roseburg, Ore./Roseburg) took their turns.

Thompson poured in a career-high 38 points, but the sixth-ranked Raiders needed clutch 3-pointers from Sturner and Weber to survive an 80-76 win over the Geoducks at the Costantino Recreation Center.

The Raiders upped their record to 16-3 overall and 4-2 in the Cascade Conference going into Saturday's key tilt at Northwest University. Evergreen dipped to 1-12 and 0-6.

The Geoducks positioned themselves to pull off a monumental upset, leading 74-70 with 2 minutes, 17 seconds left after a 23-7 run that included three of their 10 3-pointers and two buckets-and-one.

That's where Sturner and Weber came in. After an SOU 3-point miss, Sturner grabbed an offensive rebound, took a couple dribbles back and buried his own 3. Evergreen turned the ball over on its next possession.

Sturner got into the lane on SOU's ensuing trip and kicked out to Weber, who hit a triple on the right wing as the shot clock expired to put the Raiders up for good, 76-74, with 38 seconds remaining.

Sturner finished 5-for-7 with 13 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks, his 11^th double-double of the season. Jacob Kaler (Camas, Wash./Camas Valley) scored 10 points, Jeff Bush (West Linn, Ore./West Linn) had eight assists and Kyle Tedder (Coos Bay, Ore./Marshfield) totaled eight points and four assists off the bench.

Those were all just complementary pieces to Thompson, however. The 6-foot-7 junior forward, who also registered eight rebounds, went 9-for-10 from the field in the first half – including 5-for-6 from 3-point range – to score 26 of SOU's 42. He was 12-for-20 in the game.

Thompson's previous high-scoring game was 34, which he'd done three times and most recently against The Master's on Nov. 9. He's scored 30-plus on eight occasions in his career.

Aside from their 3-point shooting, the Geoducks were able to stay in the game by limiting their turnover total to 10 – five fewer than SOU's. They also limited the Raiders to six offensive rebounds, and in turn got off 15 more field-goal attempts.

The Raiders' advantage was at the foul line, where they went 15-for-17 to Evergreen's 4-for-5. Thompson went 8-for-9 and Tedder was 5-for-6.

Kaler gave the Raiders their largest lead at 63-51 with one of their 11 3-pointers at the 10:54 mark. The Geoducks immediately made their move.

Dre Taylor paced Evergreen with 16 points. Marc Taylor and Kyle Calhoun scored 15 apiece, and Frankie Johnson tallied 11 points and nine assists.

The win was SOU's fifth straight in the series.