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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Advertisement Email Story to a Friend February 8, 2006 South Medford junior Kyle Singler pulls down a rebound during the third quarter of Tuesday�s SOC tilt at Grants Pass. Singler finished with a game-high 22 points. Slowly but surely, South prevails By DON HUNT Mail Tribune GRANTS PASS — Spread the court. Set multiple screens. Pass the ball. Look for layups off backdoor cuts. That was the strategy for Grants Pass Tuesday night in its Southern Oregon Conference basketball matchup against South Medford. For the better part of a half, the plan worked. But by the time the full 32 minutes had been contested, the No. 1-ranked Panthers had pulled away for a 56-35 victory. Junior forward Kyle Singler gunned in a game-high 22 points on 8-for-10 shooting from the field and 6-for-6 marksmanship from the free-throw line to lead South Medford (19-1, 10-0 SOC). Grants Pass (13-8, 8-2 SOC) dictated a snail’s pace tempo through most of the first half. It trailed 8-6 after one quarter and 13-6 three minutes into the second period, but back-to-back, 3- point baskets by junior wing Shane Mahr and a three-point play the old-fashioned way by senior post Jason Nunnemaker got the Cavemen even at 15-all with 3:05 left before the intermission. Advertisement "The idea was to limit them to one possession per minute," explained Grants Pass coach Bill Cowell. "I don’t like to play that way, but they’re so much bigger than us that we had to slow things down to have a chance." The nine straight Grants Pass points enlivened the largely partisan GP crowd of about 1,900 at Heater-Newman Memorial Gym. But the Panthers never got rattled. Senior post Kendall Gielow hit a layup on their next possession to put South Medford back in front and then Singler made two free throws and a layup as the Panthers extended their lead to 21-15 with 1:11 left before the break. Grants Pass then played for the final shot, but Mahr launched a jumper a little early, the Panthers got the rebound and Harthun scored at the other end of the court an instant before the halftime buzzer. "We didn’t stick to the plan the last part of the first half," Cowell said. "I think we got a little caught up in the excitement. They were pressing us, and we didn’t want to shoot the ball unless it was a layup, but we did and it cost us." South Medford coach Dennis Murphy agreed that the last three minutes of the first half turned the momentum in his team’s favor. "Harthun’s basket at the end of the half was huge," Murphy said. "They could have gotten within four points but instead we’re up by eight at halftime." Things got worse for Grants Pass in the third quarter. The 6-foot-7 Gielow twice stole the ball in the backcourt and rumbled to the basket for two-hand, slam dunks. Singler added six points in the period and Harthun, who was fighting off the flu bug that had him throwing up on Monday, drilled back-to-back jumpers as the Panthers’ lead swelled to 43-28. "They like to run a fake back cut and then come out for the pass, but I read it and got the steals," Gielow said. Reserves Tony DeSimone and Jeff Stanek aided South Medford’s cause by forcing a couple turnovers during the Panthers’ 20-13 run. South Medford wound up shooting 61.5 percent from the field (24 of 39) and made 6 of 7 free-throws. Grants Pass hit on just 44.8 percent of its field-goal attempts (13 of 29). "We knew they’d be pretty deliberate, but we didn’t think they’d be taking two minutes off the clock like they did at the start of the game," Singler said. "This was a scary game to play because every possession becomes valuable. But I thought we kept our cool." Nunnemaker led the Cavemen with 10 points. SOUTH MEDFORD (56) — Singler 22, Harthun 12, Gielow 10, Daley 5, Johnson 2, Anderson 3, Stanek 2, DeSimone 0, E.J. Singler 0, Grimes 0. Totals: 24-39 6-7 56. GRANTS PASS (35) — Nunnemaker 10, Dolmage 6, Mahr 6, Wiersma 5, Saxon 4, Ingledue 4, Lathen 0. Totals: 13-29 4-5 35. South Medford........................... 8 15 20 13 — 56 Grants Pass.....................................6 9 13 7 — 35 3-point goals — South Medford 2 (Daley 1, Anderson 1), Grants Pass 5 (Mahr 2, Dolmage 2, Wiersma 1). JV Score — Grants Pass 59, South Medford 56. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail Slowly but surely, South prevails ">[email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Discount Hotel Reservations online casinos news Ashley Furniture HomeStore Send Flowers Southern Oregon Loans California Casinos GMAT Prep Windermere Van Vleet Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Online Casino Fundraisers Sudoku Online Casinos Canada Online Pharmacy Advertisement s