KLAMATH FALLS – A clinical opening 10 minutes gave the Southern Oregon men's basketball team just enough breathing room to take down an NAIA Top 25 squad for its first win of the season on Friday afternoon at the Lithia-Oregon Tech Classic.
Senior forward
Bryce Dyer amassed team-highs of 18 points and eight rebounds in the Raiders' 79-69 defeat of No. 20-ranked Hope International (Calif.) at Danny Miles Court. By the midway point of the first half, they'd forced eight turnovers while hitting 14-of-18 from the field to build a commanding 34-11 lead.
Jace Anderson scored 10 of his 12 during the early blitz and
Isaiah Bronson added 12 off the bench, helping lift SOU to 1-1 entering another sizable test at 6 p.m. Saturday against No. 17 The Master's (Calif.).
The Raiders cooled off – after knocking down five of their first seven 3-point attempts, they missed 21 of their next 23 – and Royals big men Aman Haynes and Chinedu Nwankwo combined for 30 second-half points to narrow the gap.
The lead was down to 59-54 before
Gio Evanson found
Brady Rice for a 3-pointer with 6:25 to go. Up six again with just over three minutes left, Dyer tipped in a Raider miss and Bronson followed a defensive stop with a three-point play.
The Raiders wrapped at 48% from the field, overcoming HIU's 60% mark with a plus-four turnover margin and 15 offensive rebounds. Dyer pulled down seven of them.
Evanson and Rice contributed nine points apiece, and Evanson accounted for five of the team's 15 assists. Freshman point guard
Tariq Lofton scored eight.
HIU (1-2) got 22 from Nwankwo and 19 from Haynes on 16-of-21 combined shooting. They pushed the Royals to 50 points in the paint.
The teams will rematch Nov. 24 on HIU's home court in Fullerton.