COLLEGE PLACE, Wash. – Following up the hottest weekend of his career, Southern Oregon guard
Aaron Borich showed no signs of cooling down in an 86-71 win over Walla Walla (Wash.) on Thursday night at Windemuth Court.
Borich, a 6-foot-1 senior from Australia, drilled his first six 3-point attempts and finished with team-highs of 20 points and five assists. His last triple gave the 18th-ranked Raiders a 46-18 lead just over 15 minutes into the contest, allowing them to go into cruise control before bumping their record to 11-4 overall and 5-2 in the Cascade Conference.
Borich finished 6-of-7 from deep – his minutes were limited in the second half with the game in hand – and became the first Raider to hit six 3-pointers in a half since Kyle Tedder on Dec. 15, 2012. He's knocked down 17 over the Raiders' last three games and shot 27-of-47 downtown over their last six.
Jordan Hunt, a 6-9 senior forward from New Zealand, was also sharp with 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting, and
Tate Hoffman turned in 16 more points on 6-of-10 accuracy.
Kiefer Edwards added eight points and
Jake Virga had seven off the bench, combining for 13 after halftime.
Tez Allen contributed eight rebounds and
Teron Bradford had seven.
Walla Walla (5-12, 3-4 CCC) had won three straight. The Raiders have won six of their last seven.
The teams will finish their season series at 2 p.m. Friday, playing again on WWU's home floor.
Zayne Browning's 28 points and 15 rebounds paced the Wolves, who cut into SOU's lead with an 11-0 run during the final two minutes of play.
Borich's first-half onslaught was too much to overcome, however. He and Tedder are the only Raiders to hit at least five 3-pointers in three straight games since
Brian McDermott became SOU's head coach in 1996.