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THURSDAY February 5, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels December 18, 2003 Shorthanded SOU men blasted in league opener Without Jay Mayernik, Raiders can't keep up with Cavs By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Brian McDermott slogged out of the Southern Oregon University locker room and summed up his team's performance in two words. Neither were printable. Denise Baratta | Ashland Daily Tidings Southern oregon sophomore guard Peter Nelson gives chase as Concordia senior Steve Ford dribbles up court,during the Cavs' 82-68 victory Wednesday night at McNeal Pavilion. The Raiders outrebounded Concordia, but committed 20 turnovers. Concordia took advantage of 20 Raider turnovers and consistently burned SOU's sluggish defense inside and out en route to an 82-68 Cascade Conference-opening romp Wednesday night at McNeal Pavilion. It didn't help that the Raiders (5-8) learned only hours before tip-off that they'd be without their second-leading scorer, versatile freshman Jay Mayernik. But McDermott refused to use that as an excuse, instead pointing the finger decidedly at SOU's effort, or lack thereof. "We just didn't play with any joy or passion," he said. "It was worse than pickup ball. We just didn't play like it meant anything. I don't understand that. It's the first game of league - it should probably mean something, and that affected everything. If you can't play hard and like you're having fun and with some energy, all the rest of the stuff is immaterial." The numbers Concordia (8-4) junior guard Jon Lee led five Cavs in double-figures with 19 points on 8 of 9 shooting. Junior forward Brandon Erlandson added 13 points, and senior forward Nate Ferrier and senior guard Steve Ford combined to score 24 points and grab 11 rebounds. The Raiders showed glimpses of their offensive potential, but couldn't make up for the loss Mayernik, who was averaging 14.3 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. McDermott said Mayernik probably will miss the rest of the season. The loss forced McDermott to juggle his lineup, and the results were mixed. Sophomore forward Jared Abell had 13 points and five rebounds, sophomore center Nick Borrevik added 12 points and nine boards and sophomore forward Shea Washington finished with 11 points and 11 boards. SOU was out-shot 47 percent to 51 percent, but outrebounded the Cavs 37-29 and had 20 assists to Concordia's 12. Still, Concordia never lost control of the game and won going away. "It's hard to lose Jay, but we still have a lot of talented guys, a lot of good players," said Raider junior forward Jin Voeks, who had nine points and five rebounds. "Making mental mistakes like that, it's just hard to win games. We had 20 turnovers, didn't execute on offense, no energy - that's just stuff that we have to deal with. Losing Jay is bad, but how we played isn't a result of losing him by any means." What happened? The Raiders' chances began to unravel only seconds after Abell drilled a 3-pointer to give SOU a 46-45 lead with 15:23 left. Erlandson answered with a 3 of his own on Concordia's next possession, igniting a 17-4 spurt that gave the Cavs a 62-50 advantage. The Raiders cut that lead to five twice, but could get no closer. Concordia hit 12 straight free throws in the final three minutes to ice it. The Cavs were 23-for-27 at the line overall, while SOU went 10-for-17. It was a back-and-forth battle through most of the first half, with Concordia leading most of the way. The Raiders never looked completely comfortable in their halfcourt set against the Cavs' constant pressure defense, but stayed in the game by scoring in transition. Ryan Gabel's jumper with 7:23 left in the first half gave the Raiders a 28-27 lead. The teams were tied at 35 until Andre Johnson's free throw kicked off an 8-3 Concordia run to end the half. In a sign of things to come, Voeks and teammate Travis Elam missed 3 of 4 free throws in the final 30 seconds, while Concordia's Jerry Smith drilled an uncontested buzzer-beating jumper from the free throw line to give the Cavs a 43-38 halftime lead. "We were soft, they played tough," said Elam, who had 10 points and five boards in 25 solid minutes off the bench. "We got beat physically and you're not going to win any games when people are playing tougher than you. Gotta come out harder, play tougher, fight through screens, and play some 'D.' We got talent, we just didn't play like it." Final analysis In the end, the Raiders proved they have plenty of scoring options even without Mayernik, but are a long way from being a great defensive team. Part of that may have had to do with Washington's foul trouble - the physical 6-foot-7 post picked up his second foul midway through the first half and was limited to 28 minutes. But McDermott said SOU's problems run much deeper than in-game obstacles. "We didn't run anything that I could recognize as something that we've worked on," he said, "and I don't know why. If I knew we'd have it fixed, but it was awful. That's as bad as we've played. I just can't imagine us playing worse than that. "It looked like we'd been out until 6 a.m., like everyone was." Can any of this be fixed in time for tonight's second league game against Western Baptist? "No, no," McDermott said. "We're trying to find out why they feel like we didn't have energy and if they even felt it. I mean, if they don't know that it's like that, if they can't feel that, then we're really in trouble. If they don't know the difference between playing with emotion and energy and passion, if they can't feel the difference, you can't tell them the difference. "They gotta feel it." DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: A new improved archive search is coming! Look for it in mid-February! .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - ODOT Road Cams