ASHLAND – Eastern Oregon guard Jordan May stuck another late dagger in Southern Oregon on Saturday night, dribbling into a 23-footer that went down with 4.6 seconds to go to give the Mountaineers a 64-61 win in the regular-season finale at Lithia Motors Pavilion.
The Raiders (19-10, 9-9 Cascade Conference) shot an abysmal 6-of-34 in the first half and trailed 57-47 with 6:30 to go, but pulled even for the first time since the opening minutes when
Jordan Hunt kicked out for a
Tristen Holmes 3-pointer with 23 seconds left.
After May's triple, Holmes dribbled the length of the floor and had to double-clutch on a 3-point try that fell short at the buzzer.
The Raiders will have the No. 6 seed in the CCC Championships presented by U.S. Bank and play at third-seeded Northwest Christian in Wednesday's quarterfinals. EOU took the No. 5 seed and will play at No. 4 Corban.
On his senior night, Holmes scored 17 points and made a season-high four 3-pointers on as many attempts in the second half. Hunt finished with 17 points, nine rebounds and two blocks, but outside of his and Holmes' efforts, the rest of the Raiders combined to go 8-of-40 a night after shooting 54 percent in an upset of third-ranked College of Idaho.
May was held to 7-of-22 shooting and went scoreless for nine minutes before his game-winner but totaled a game-high 19 points with eight rebounds. A week earlier, he hit a buzzer-beater to defeat Warner Pacific, and on the same night the Raiders watched Corban victimize them with two buzzer-beating 3-pointers to win in double-overtime.
Jarek Schetzle, EOU's 7-foot center, dominated inside with 16 points, 15 rebounds and six blocks.
Raider freshman
Teron Bradford chimed in with 10 points, seven boards and three assists.