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Grizz stymied in opener By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Poor shooting, sloppy passing and weak rebounding aside, the Grizzlies had a great Southern Oregon Conference opener Tuesday night. In a game marred by slowdown tactics, offensive ineptitude by both teams and turnovers galore the Klamath Union High boys basketball team used a 14-3 run in the fourth quarter to pull away from Ashland en route to a 39-30 Southern Oregon Conference-opening victory at Mountain Avenue gym. Klamath Union High junior forward Jacob Wynn plows over Ashland senior guard Bryan Clevenger as sophomore Christopher Mackovjak (right) and senior Nick Palmesano (left) look on. Ashland Daily Tidings/DENISE BARATTA Nick Palmesano's bucket to start the fourth quarter gave the Grizzlies (7-4) just their second lead of the game, 25-23, but the Pelicans (8-3) answered with a free throw, a Drew Crawford 3-pointer and a Zach Tucker three-point play off a gift-wrapped steal to go up 30-25. After Christopher Mackovjak scored for Ashland to finally stop the run, the Pelicans applied the needle - scoring seven of the next eight points to open up an insurmountable 37-28 lead. "We played hard for three quarters and then we got into that fourth quarter and we just mentally did not adjust to even more pressure," Ashland coach Rick Cornelius said. "We didn't make the kind of adjustments that we needed to, mentally more than anything else, and that's going to be a challenge for us." Mackovjak, a 6-4 sophomore, led the Grizzlies with 11 points and 5-11 senior forward Clinton Bryan showed off his hook shot while scoring eight points, but no other Grizzly contributed more than four. Ashland's leading scorer, senior guard Bryan Clevenger, was held to just two free throws, and Palmesano, Ashland's other starting guard, was also held to two points. "I don't think personally that we attacked their pressure when we needed to," Clevenger said in a solemn Grizz postgame locker room. "We played our game pretty much the entire first three quarters, they were playing right into that. The fourth quarter we let them dictate � and when that happens you're obviously not going to have that rewarding of an outcome." Tucker, a 6-5 senior guard, scored seven of his game-high 16 points in the fourth to lead the Pelicans, while Jacob Wynn and Will Sargent added eight points and seven points, respectively. The Grizzlies played with the same energy and determination that produced seven wins in their first 10 games - hustle dives for loose balls were a common sight - but victimized themselves with crucial turnovers just as victory seemed within reach. Ashland finished with seven turnovers to KU's 14, but two of the Grizzlies' gaffes led to fourth quarter fastbreak buckets, helping the Pelicans pull away. "It wasn't as if they had to really work to get (the steals)," Cornelius said. "We didn't make good decisions in the fourth quarter. It's that simple." Ashland, gunning for its first playoff berth since 1991, looked tight from the opening tip and never found its shooting touch. The Grizzlies made just 10 of 45 shots on the night, including a 5-for-25 first half, but stayed close by holding the Pelicans to 13-for-30 shooting. Ashland was also decimated on the boards by the taller Pelicans, 30-16. Klamath Union led 11-3 after an awful opening quarter and 17-13 at the half before the Grizzlies used a 10-5 third-quarter rally to take their first lead of the game, 23-22. Wynn, a 6-3 junior guard, tied the game at 23 with a free throw at the 2:59 mark of the third. Later, the Grizzlies played catch for the quarter's final 1:30, a repeat of the KU strategy that worked the Ashland fans into a frenzy during the final minute of the first half. That was about all the Grizz faithful had to yell about in this one, as Ashland was held to eight points below its previous season low and 28 points below its season average. "We were a little tentative on both sides of the ball and didn't play up to our ability in the fourth quarter," Palmesano said. There were some positives for the Grizzlies, however, most notably the fact that they could barely hit the rim from outside against a pretty good team yet still were in position to win in the fourth quarter - thanks mostly to a valiant defensive effort. Ashland also showed glimpses of what could someday become a reliable halfcourt offense, scoring 19 points in the paint. But the fastbreaking Grizzlies that averaged over 65 points a game in their first six games were MIA during this bizarre SOC opener. Instead, the Grizzlies were forced to grind it out against a halfcourt, man-to-man defense that enjoyed huge size advantages at every position. To make matters worse, Ashland's poor shooting severely limited its full court press opportunities. "This has been our challenge," Cornelius said. "You can't fault them, they played so hard. The size disparity is one thing, but even then our defensive pressure � held them to (39) tonight. That has been the trend the last two years that I've been involved in the program. We go out and we defend our heart out, we just have a real difficult, difficult, difficult time trying to find a basket sometimes. "We've got to come back now and shake this off and realize that if we're going to be able to compete against some of the better teams in the SOC, one thing we definitely have to do is we have to be able to execute with some confidence out there and find a way to break people down on the defensive side." Notes: Ashland's only first-quarter points came on a Christopher Presicci 3-pointer 3 minutes and 40 seconds into the game. � Ashland's next opponent, South Medford, destroyed North Medford 73-45 to improve to 9-1 overall. Girls Basketball At Klamath Union, Ashland (9-3, 2-0 SOC) capitalized on an effective inside-outside attack with center Marla Morin pouring in a game-high 24 points and guards Hilary Huyett and Alysse Carlson combining for 25 in a 66-54 Southern Oregon Conference win over Klamath Union. The Grizzlies outscored the Pelicans in every quarter, including a 14-9 advantage in the fourth that put the game away. "I was very pleased with Marla, and Hilary Huyett didn't have a great shooting night, but found a way to score with drives to the basket," Ashland coach Steve Humann said. "Alysse played probably her best game directing the offense and driving to the basket, but the thing I was really pleased with was our bench play." Humann added that Kristina Voskes, Jamie Roupp (three steals) and Abeni Hill (seven points) each came through for the Grizzlies off the bench. "It's not so much that they scored points, but they gave us solid minutes off the bench," Humann said. Morin added five rebounds, Huyett had seven steals, five rebounds and seven assists and Carlson chipped in five assists and five rebounds. Also for the Grizzlies, Chloe Hansen and Julia Sobolik each pulled down six boards. For Klamath Union (9-3, 0-2), Jenni Ritter and Erin Uerlings combined for 29 points and each corralled seven rebounds. Pelican point guard Tabatha Cooke dished out six assists. The Grizzlies hit the hardwood again Friday night against the South Medford Panthers (3-8, 1-1), in Medford. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -