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Grizzlies fall victim to long-ball barrage By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings ASHLAND - After being on the bad end of another spectacular, possibly record-breaking Southern Oregon Conference shooting performance, Ashland High senior guard Nick Palmesano could only shrug his shoulders and shake his head. "People like shooting against us," he sighed. "They get excited to play against Ashland and I don't know why." Less than three weeks after North Medford's Beau Hovland lambasted Ashland with seven 3-pointers in a Black Tornado win, Grants Pass junior guard Tom Higgins did the same Friday, sinking 7 of 9 treys, including four in the fourth quarter, to help the Cavemen pull out a 67-56 win at Mountain Avenue gym. The seven 3's is believed to be an SOC record, but Higgins (21 points) gave most of the credit to his giant teammate who gets all the attention inside - 6-foot-6 senior center Kory Mahr. Mahr scored 15 points, pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds, dished out five assists and basically dominated the paint from beginning to end. Still, Mahr needed some outside help to take the pressure off and Higgins, a scrawny 5-foot-9, 129-pounder, was up to the challenge. "I've never hit seven before, that's quite a few," he said. "(Mahr's) able to find me when I'm open, so I'm able to put them in. I was really open." The win improved the Cavemen to 9-2 in the SOC and 16-5 overall, while Ashland fell to 3-8 in conference play and 10-11 overall. With South Medford's win over Crater, Grants Pass remained two games behind the Panthers in the standings with three league games left. Ashland, meanwhile, had its playoff hopes further damaged, and yielded afterwards that the goal now is to finish above .500 overall. The Cavemen used a 12-3 first-quarter run to take a 21-11 lead into the second. Their cushion fluctuated from eight to 15 over the next two quarters and they led by eight heading into the fourth. That's when Higgins took over. Sporting a quick release and a knack for finding the open spots, Higgins drained his first 3 of the quarter with 7:26 left and his second on Grants Pass' next possession to give the Cavemen a 51-36 lead. Ashland came back with a long bomb of its own by senior guard Bryan Clevenger, but Higgins silenced the pro-Ashland crowd seconds later with a top-of-the-key trey that bounced off the front of the rim, off the backboard and in. "They ended up trapping us at the end of the game and trying to speed up the game and we were able to keep our composure and not turn the ball over, and take open shots," Higgins said. "It's pretty easy having a 6-6 athlete (Mahr) on your team. It makes it a lot easier." Mahr was his usual, game-altering self, drawing multiple defenders all night - most of which gave up at least three inches. Ashland, possibly the smallest team in the conference, relied on 5-11 post Clint Bryan and 6-4 post Chris Mackovjak to do most of the defensive work against Mahr, but it was no use - especially with Higgins going bonkers from outside. "We knew that two things would hurt us, either the 3's or Mahr," Bryan said. "It was either one or the other, and they got both." Bryan led Ashland with 14 points and five boards and Palmesano added 14 points of his own. Grants Pass senior forward Ryan Davidson was the Cavemen's second-leading scorer with 17 points and GP sophomore guard Jake Dastrup dished out three assists. Higgins' final 3 fell through with 2:06 left and gave the Cavemen a 63-47 lead. It also capped a 21-13 Grants Pass rally that sealed Ashland's third straight loss since a Feb. 4 win at Klamath Union. Ashland is now below .500 for the first time all season, but already has more league wins than it managed over the previous two seasons combined. "If we can win our next three games, we'll be over .500 for the season and that would be a good thing for an Ashland team," Palmesano said. Bryan agreed. "Just go out, take it one game at a time, play hard every game," he said. "We know that we've got to beat the rest of the teams." 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 -