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AHS boys get moral victory By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings The law of averages guarantees that the Ashland High boys basketball team will eventually celebrate a real league victory rather than grind their teeth over a moral one. But not yet. The Grizzlies had the No. 7 team in the state on the ropes Friday night but couldn't deliver the knockout blow in a wild 55-48 Southern Oregon Conference loss to the South Medford Panthers at Mountain Avenue gym. The loss dropped Ashland to 0-2 in SOC play this season and 1-29 in league play over the past two years, while the Panthers improved to 2-0 in the conference and 10-1 overall. After the game, with "perception" as the buzz word, Ashland players and head coach Rick Cornelius talked about the importance of stepping up against a quality league opponent and the impact the spirited comeback could have on the program. "First of all, we're dealing with perception here," Cornelius said. "The perception around the valley that Ashland basketball doesn't really exist, that our kids just kind of go out and play the game, and you know, for a good part of the last 12 or 13 years that's been the case. What we've done with games like this, especially games likes this, is we put some real credibility into the program through the efforts of these kids, who want nothing more than not to be the doormats of the SOC. "They want people to believe, they want to believe in themselves, and they're going out there against deeper benches, size and challenges and playing their hearts out � It just hurts that we can't quite get over the hump and find a way to win a game like this, but that still doesn't take away from the fact that what we have here is a group of young men who are starting to come of age and are playing some pretty good basketball at times." Nick Palmesano's bucket with 6:03 to go kicked off a 7-0 Ashland run that brought the crowd to its feet and the Grizzlies (7-5 overall) within three, 47-44, with 2:01 left. Sophomore forward Christopher Mackovjak, who led all scorers with 15 points, capped off the rally with an inside basket off a beautiful feed by Bryan Clevenger and suddenly Ashland, which was down by as much as 12 early in the fourth, had mighty South Medford staggering. But moments later Grizz senior guard Christopher Presicci was called for traveling after stumbling on his way to a would-be breakaway lay-in, giving South the final momentum shift and the boost they needed to finish with an 8-4 run. Presicci's turnover, one of 18 by the Grizzlies, came after an Ashland steal, as he tangled feet with a South defender who aggressively went for the ball. The Grizzlies, who shot eight free throws to South's 24, cried foul on the play but to no avail. "I don't really know (what happened)," Presicci said of the controversial play. "I had the ball, I was dribbling it, I passed it off and I got tackled and they called the travel. I think that was a big momentum-changer right there. We were down by three, that would have made it one. A lot of calls could have gone the other way, but that's not all. We made some dumb mistakes. Down the stretch we should have taken care of the ball better." On the Panthers' ensuing possession, South Medford senior post Eric Fischer (10 points) was fouled and made both free throws with 1:21 to go for a 49-44 Panther lead. A Presicci free throw got Ashland within four (49-45) with 1:10 left, but South's Ryan Fiegi drilled two free throws seven seconds later and a Grizz five-second violation on their ensuing inbounds pass - one of three AHS turnovers in the final 1:03 - brought an abrupt end to the drama. Ashland senior post Clinton Bryan, who picked up his fourth foul with 3:58 to go in the first half and spent most of the game riding the pine, was second on the Grizzlies' scoring list with 11 points, while Presicci and Palmesano added six points apiece. For South, Fiegi scored a team-high 14 points, while junior post Craig Johnson (off the bench) and senior wing Jeremy Frantz each chipped in 12. The Grizzlies nearly overcame the 16-point free throw differential by doing all the things they couldn't during Tuesday's ugly loss to Klamath Union - executing their offense, hitting open jump shots, forcing turnovers and holding their own on the boards. The Grizzlies ended up with more turnovers than they had Tuesday, but showed patience in their halfcourt sets and handled South's constant pressure better as the game went on. The result was a 51 percent (21-for-41) shooting night for the Grizzlies. Meanwhile, Ashland held South to 44 percent shooting (17-for-39), forced 16 Panther turnovers and delivered a near wash on the boards, barely losing the rebounding battle to the much taller Panthers, 22-20. "There's always been a perception that Ashland loses," Mackovjak said, "but this is a whole different group of guys and that's not part of us, you know. We work real hard, put time in and we come out expecting to beat everybody � We're going to go out and we're going to show some people that we're Ashland, we play hard - we got that now - and now we're going to start winning." Ashland trailed 14-11 after one and 29-25 at the half, and got a standing ovation from their pumped-up home crowd as they made their way to the locker room. South opened the second half with seven straight to take a 36-25 lead and scored five of the third quarter's last seven points to take a 44-32 lead into the fourth. The Panthers still led by 12, 47-35, with 6:30 to go before Ashland began its comeback. "All we do is talk about perception," Bryan said, "and this league doesn't think anything of us. We know within ourselves what we can do. We're out here to surprise people and make it happen. "We were just trying to play hard and just have fun and then we know things will take care of themselves, and we almost pulled it off." Game Notes: Clevenger, who entered league play with a 17-plus points per game scoring average, struggled through his second straight sub-par offensive night and finished with one point. The 5-9 guard picked up his second foul just two minutes into the game and saw limited action the rest of the way. He now has three points in two league games � Nine of South's 11 fourth-quarter points came at the foul line, where they hit 18 of 24 shots. Ashland, on the other hand, hit 5 of 8 from the charity stripe and lost despite making four more field goals than the Panthers (21-17). Ashland had just three free throw attempts through the first three quarters. � The Ashland-South Medford rematch will be played Feb. 7 at 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 -