Document text
62 °F Forecast | Road Cams Friday, March 18, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend February 9, 2005 Cavemen deny South, Murphy Grants Pass snaps Panthers’ SOC win streak and prevents South coach from celebrating 500th win By KRIS HENRY Mail Tribune The moral to the story Tuesday for the South Medford boys basketball team is you can’t count your chickens before they hatch. A buzz in the stands as Panthers head coach Dennis Murphy entered Tuesday’s game looking for his 500th career victory gave rise to frenzied screams of joy for Grants Pass as the visitors played the role of spoiler in the South High gymnasium. Playing with more energy and determination, the Cavemen avenged an earlier loss to fourth-ranked South with a nail-biting, 59-57 upset that wasn’t secured until Kyle Singler’s leaning shot from the free-throw line bounced off the back rim at the buzzer. "I heard they had the sandwiches ordered and everything," GP head coach Bill Cowell said with a sly smile after the game. "I don’t know if that’s true but, yeah, that made (tonight’s win) a little bit sweeter, I suppose. You never want to be on the back end of one of those deals, I don’t care what the situation is. You just don’t want to be the celebratory victim." Advertisement The Cavemen hardly played the role of victim in snapping South’s 24-game winning streak in Southern Oregon Conference play. They played with poise and patience, and refused to allow the Panthers to go on one of their typical game-breaking runs. "I think they just wanted it a little bit more than us," said Singler, who finished with 11 points and five rebounds on 4-for-12 shooting. "You just can’t do that in these big games." Grants Pass (14-7, 8-2 SOC) was the last SOC team to beat South when the Cavemen tripped up the Panthers, 60-47, on Feb. 21, 2003. That triumph snapped South’s school-record streak of 32 straight SOC victories. Tuesday’s outcome was also the first SOC home loss for the Panthers since Jan. 30, 2001, when Roseburg managed a 51-38 victory. Since that loss to Roseburg four years ago, South (16-4, 9-1) had gone 56-1 in SOC play entering Tuesday’s fray. "The guys just did exactly what we wanted them to do," Cowell said of how GP was able to edge the Panthers. "We limited their possessions a little bit, spread them out and just made great decisions with the ball." Jake Dastrup knocked down five 3-pointers en route to a team-high 17 points, while Jason Nunnemaker added 13 points and four rebounds and Austin Wiersma 12 points and five assists for the Cavemen. Dastrup also added four rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots as GP desperately wanted to atone for a 64-53 home loss to South on Jan 14 in which the Panthers led by 20 points at halftime. "We just came out with a ton of confidence and played hard," said Dastrup, who was 6-for-9 from the field. Overall, Grants Pass was 21-for-41 from the field (51 percent) and 8-for-17 from 3-point range (47 percent). Thanks to a strong inside presence from junior Brent Johnson, who had a game-high 20 points, the Panthers countered with a 49-percent clip from the field (22-for-45) but were only 3-for-13 from behind the arc (23 percent). "You can’t play these kind of games without your best game because, if you don’t, you’re not going to win and that’s exactly what happened tonight," said Murphy, whose combined varsity and JV record over 30 years fell to 499-219. "We were a step behind all night and nothing came easy for us." Nothing appeared out of the ordinary early for South as the Panthers opened a 9-4 lead in the first quarter, highlighted by an alley-oop, reverse jam by Singler from Michael Harthun to open the game. The lead bounced back and forth for the rest of the contest, with neither team leading by more than five until the Cavemen conjured up a key run that featured three 3-pointers compared to as many field goals in the paint for South. "They hit the big shots down the stretch," said Johnson, who had six rebounds and two blocks. "They kept on hitting those 3s and we were getting 2s and it’s hard to get a win out of that." Dastrup opened the flurry with his fifth trey of the game, then twice found Wiersma at the top of the key and the junior transfer from Crater High didn’t hesitate to hit his target. "Austin was awesome," said Dastrup. "He was a crunch-time player tonight. He wasn’t afraid to take the big shot and he nailed ‘em." All but three of Wiersma’s points came in the fourth quarter. "It’s been a big change but these guys have had confidence in me that I could do it," he said of finding a new home in Grants Pass. "I haven’t been hitting my shots but I finally stepped up and they went through." Still, South had its opportunities to pull the game out late, trailing 58-57 when Kevin Berg missed the front end of a one-and-one, only to have Nunnemaker slide in for a rebound with 47.6 seconds to play. Dastrup missed another front-end free throw but South couldn’t capitalize as Singler was called for traveling on a scramble toward the basket with 6.2 seconds to play. A quick foul put Wiersma on the line and he sank the first with 5.2 seconds to go but missed the second. Singler hauled in the rebound and weaved his way through traffic for a leaning 15-footer that had a little too much force behind it. "We had the shot that we wanted, it just didn’t fall," said the sophomore, who was the focus Tuesday of a visit by University of Kansas assistant coach Joe Dooley. "There’s not much you can do, the shot can either go in or out, and it went out tonight." Mark McKay gave South a boost with eight points off the bench, while all of Harthun’s seven points came in the first quarter. The freshman point guard didn’t attempt a shot in the second half. GRANTS PASS (59) — Dastrup 17, Nunnemaker 13, Wiersma 12, Berg 8, Dolmage 5, Erbe 4, Cowell 0, Tocher 0. Totals: 21-41 9-14 59. SOUTH MEDFORD (57) — Johnson 20, Singler 11, McKay 8, Harthun 7, Gielow 7, Adams 2, Daley 2, Weaver 0. Totals: 22-45 10-15 57. Grants Pass...............................15 11 18 15 — 59 South Medford..........................15 12 14 16 — 57 3-point goals — Grants Pass 8-17 (Dastrup 5, Wiersma 2, Dolmage 1), South Medford 3-13 (Harthun 1, McKay 1, Singler 1). JV score — Grants Pass 48, South Medford 46. Reach reporter Kris Henry at 776-4488, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Slippers Student Loans afsa teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Tatoo Advertisement s