The Southern Oregon men’s basketball team’s postseason path got a little more tenuous after a 71-68 loss to Corban on the penultimate night of the regular season Friday at the C.E. Jeffers Center.
Up by 14 early in the second half, the Warriors lost all of their lead before finishing strong behind Darius Henderson (20 points, 12 rebounds) and Taylor Anderson (14 points and 5 assists), ending SOU’s winning streak at six games.
The Raiders (18-9 overall, 14-7 Cascade Conference) dropped out of a three-way tie for second place and into a tie for fourth with Corban (18-9, 14-7).
They’ll need a win Saturday at Bushnell or a Corban loss to Oregon Tech to clinch the No. 4 seed and a home game in Tuesday night’s CCC Tournament quarterfinal round. Their only path to the No. 2 seed – and guaranteed homecourt advantage through next Friday’s semifinals – is a win paired with losses for Eastern Oregon at 10th-place Northwest (Wash.) and Warner Pacific at eighth-place Lewis-Clark State (Idaho).
Senior guard Atmar Mundu nearly navigated them through a choppy offensive performance, scoring 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting. His 3-pointer with three minutes left gave them a 62-61 lead, their first since the 16-minute mark of the first half, but Anderson answered with an acrobatic finish at the hoop on the other end.
After the Warriors got a defensive stop, Anderson fed Henderson inside for a bucket that turned into a three-point play and made it 66-62 with 1:51 remaining. Reece Van Lierop made four straight free throws inside the final 19 seconds to seal the victory; the game was out of reach by the time SOU’s Tez Allen hit three free throws with seven-tenths of a second on the clock.
Mundu scored 16 in the second half, where Will Graves also totaled 12 of his 14 to help the Raiders erase what had been a 45-31 deficit. Josh Meyer had 10 points and four assists.
They finished at 43 percent from the field, after shooting better than 50 in each of their previous five games, and were haunted by a 17-of-25 performance at the free-throw line.
The Raiders and Warriors split their season series, but SOU would own the tiebreaker if it comes into play.
Content used with permission, compliments of SOU Sports
Photo by Al Case, Ashland Daily Photo
