spear
Al Case, Ashland Daily Photo
84
Corban CRB 4-3, 0-1
86
Winner Southern Oregon SOU 8-2, 1-0
Corban CRB
4-3, 0-1
84
Final
86
Southern Oregon SOU
8-2, 1-0
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 OT 1 F
Corban CRB 33 44 7 84
Southern Oregon SOU 32 45 9 86

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | SOU Sports Information

Raiders force OT, steal 86-84 win from Corban with clutch 3s

ASHLAND – For the third straight meeting, the Southern Oregon men's basketball team was all but dead against Corban on Saturday night at Mountain Avenue Gym. And once again, the Warriors left wondering what went wrong, this time after an extra session in the Cascade Conference opener for both teams.

The 13th-ranked Raiders won the latest nail-biter, 86-84, in especially confounding fashion: Corban led by one at halftime and shot 72 percent in the second half, including 6-of-7 from the 3-point line, but still couldn't put SOU away.

With the Raiders trailing 77-71, Kenny Meyer hit a contested 3-pointer with 20 seconds left and Clay Sierra came up with a steal on the full-court press. Out of a timeout, Joel Spear hung in the air until he had a shed of daylight and drilled the game-tying 3 that went down with 0.2 seconds left on the clock.

SOU trailed again in overtime, 84-83 after a pair of AJ Monterossi free throws, but Spear drove the lane and hit Jordan West in the corner for an open 3-pointer with four seconds left. Taylor Fox's desperation attempt on the other end rimmed off, making the Raiders winners for the seventh straight time in the head-to-head series.

SOU (8-2 overall) hosts Northwest Christian at 3 p.m. Sunday. The Beacons beat seventh-ranked Oregon Tech on Saturday, 79-68.

In SOU's wins over Corban last season, the Raiders trailed by 10 with six minutes to play during one game and trailed by four with three minutes to play in the other, eventually prevailing in double-OT.

Spear wouldn't let them lose this one, going 10-for-16 for a career-high 25 points to go with six assists, six rebounds and two steals. He scored 19 of those after halftime, and Ben DeSaulnier scored 15 of his 21 after the break as well.

Sierra arguably made the biggest plays of the night – first coming through with the clutch steal in regulation, then picking off an inbounds pass with 26 seconds to go in overtime that led to a Spear layup and gave the Raiders an 83-82 lead before Monterossi's free throws. In all, Sierra gave the Raiders eight extra chances with three steals and five of his eight rebounds on the offensive end, and he also scored 10 points.

Meyer went 3-for-5 from downtown to add nine big points and three assists, and Brennan Rakoz had eight points and four boards. West had only made one basket before his game-winning 3.

Corban finished at 56 percent (35-of-63) as a team, as Monterossi went for 19 points and six assists, Toby Roth had 16 points, and Cyrus Ward logged 14 points, nine rebounds and six assists. After going 1-for-8 from 3-point range in the first half, the Warriors went 7-for-10 the rest of the way.
 
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