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Grizz boys run out of gas By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings GRANTS PASS - Three out of four ain't bad. Just not good enough for a win. The Ashland High boys basketball team hung with Grants Pass for three quarters Friday night, but ran out of gas in the fourth in a 60-46 Southern Oregon Conference loss to the Cavemen at Heater-Newman gym. The Grizzlies (8-6 overall, 1-3 SOC) used a 13-4 run to tie the game at 32 midway through the third quarter and were down by seven entering the fourth, but struggled the rest of the way in a failed attempt to grab their second straight SOC road win. "I think that for us to tie that game up, it took a lot of energy, it really did," Ashland coach Rick Cornelius said. "And we never really got into any kind of rhythm all night long. We just never did offensively. It was very clear � We just seemed to lack the kind of aggressiveness and assertiveness that was necessary to be able to break them down and attack." Grants Pass (11-3, 4-0) got only eight points from 6-6 all-star post Kory Mahr, but Matt Cowell's five 3-pointers and game-high 18 points more than made up for it, leading the Cavers to a perimeter-dominated offensive performance. "I think we lost our focus I guess at both ends," Ashland senior guard Bryan Clevenger said. "We came into this game pretty concerned about Kory Mahr because he's a pretty tough post player, but we also knew that they had the ability to shoot 3's. But, I guess we didn't expect them to be as aggressive on the 3-pointers (as they were)." Grants Pass wing Ryan Davidson added 13 points and guard Mike Pollock chipped in nine. For Ashland, Clevenger and senior post Clinton Bryan each scored a team-high 16 points to pace the team for the second straight game, but no other AHS player added more than four. The Grizzlies fell behind by 12 early and were forced to play catch-up for most of the first 2 1/2 quarters. They did, thanks to a 3-point shooting barrage by Clevenger and a strangling full-court press, but exhausted themselves in the process and had nothing left for the fourth. Grants Pass outscored Ashland 25-11 from the time Clevenger's third 3 in three minutes tied the game with 4:05 left in the third till Ryan Davidson's lay-in with 40 seconds left in the game. Everything in between was a blur of Grants Pass lay-ups and Ashland missed 3's. The Grizzlies shot 44 percent (16 of 36) through three quarters, but made just 2 of their final 20 shots to finish 18 of 56 from the floor (32 percent). Grants Pass, meanwhile, made 6 of 10 fourth-quarter shots and shot 60 percent (24-for-40) for the game. The Grizzlies once again gave an upper-echelon SOC team fits before finally succumbing to what appeared to be fatigue and/or a lack of depth. Much like last week's seven-point loss to South Medford (12-1, 4-0), Ashland used a scrambling press to spark a comeback, but stalled just as victory seemed within reach. Unlike the South Medford game, however, the Grizzlies this time came back against a team firing on all cylinders. Led by Cowell, the Cavers couldn't miss in the early going - they hit 7 of 10 shots in the first quarter - and stayed hot from outside all night. And many of Cowell's 3's were from well beyond the 3-point line, burning an Ashland zone defense geared toward containing Mahr. "In the third quarter I think we got a little lazy on both ends of the court," Clevenger said. "We couldn't really get any motion offense going or anything, and so eventually their shooters got to us that broke our pressure, which we had to put on in the third quarter." Added Bryan: "It's like, we did this great thing - we tied the game up - and we just didn't maintain our energy and just boost it and go after them and put them in a place where they don't want to be where we can control the clock and we control the ball. Instead, we just kind of slacked off a little bit. We couldn't take the next step to finishing the game off." Still, baskets by Clevenger, Bryan and Logan Bishop got Ashland within 24-17 with 4:20 left in the second quarter, and Bryan's up-and-under move got the Grizzlies within 49-42 with 6:52 left in the game. But that was as close as the Grizzlies would get in the final frame, as the Cavers used a lay-up by Tom Higgins, two free throws by Cowell and an inside bucket by Pollock to take a 55-43 lead with 2:23 to go. While Mahr didn't have a big statistical night on offense, he helped the Cavers dictate the flow of the game with his enormous presence. "He didn't hurt us points-wise," Clevenger said, "but I still think that he did hurt us in the fact that we were so concerned about him that it opened quite a bit up for the shooters." Game Notes: Grants Pass outrebounded Ashland 22-20, but had 15 turnovers to Ashland's nine. � The loss capped off Ashland's running of the SOC gauntlet - Klamath Union (loss), South Medford (loss), Roseburg (win) and Grants Pass (loss). Next, the Grizzlies face what most consider the easier half of the SOC - Crater (Jan. 24), North Medford (Jan. 28) and Eagle Point (Jan. 31), which was the only conference team Ashland beat last season. 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 -