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Red-hot Raiders streak past Warner Pacific By TIM PYLE Mail Tribune ASHLAND - The new year has delivered a resurrected Southern Oregon men's basketball team. A 78-55 victory over Warner Pacific at McNeal Pavilion on Saturday night improved the Raiders to 6-3 for the month of January and continued their crawl back into the Cascade Conference race. SOU (10-13, 6-7 Cascade) ended 2001 0-4 in conference action and 4-10 overall. But that was then. Now, sixth-year head coach Brian McDermott said the Raiders are playing like he always knew they could. "We're kinda playing like we thought we were gonna play at the beginning of the season," said McDermott, whose team's 6-3 stretch has come on the heels of an 0-7 slide that lasted the majority of December. "For whatever reason, we had that month where we weren't very good. But I think we've gotten out of that. When you have a stretch like that ... it really hits your confidence level, really lowers it. And it takes awhile to get it back. They're starting to feel like they're good, but it takes a long time." Evidence of SOU's improvement can be seen in a simple comparison - on Dec. 28, the Raiders dropped a 70-58 decision at Warner Pacific; Saturday, the Knights (13-12, 6-6 Cascade) never led after the opening minutes and trailed by double figures almost the entire second half. SOU's 41-21 edge in rebounding had a lot to do with its dominance. Senior forward Matt Zosel sat out the first meeting with Warner Pacific because of disciplinary measures, but he corralled a game-high nine rebounds Saturday. Offensively, senior center Jeff Tacheny put on a clinic of post moves in registering a game-high 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field. "Not to be cocky, but if I feel like my coach has confidence in me, I feel like there's nothing that can stop me," said the 6-foot-6, 215-pound Tacheny, a left-handed Clackamas High graduate who paces SOU in scoring at 11.8 points per game. "This is the first year, actually, that I've had a coach key on me to score. And it makes the game 10 times more fun." Junior guard Moses Olson was the second Raider in double figures, finishing off his 17-point performance with a steal and tomahawk dunk with about six minutes remaining. Both teams struggled offensively for much of the first half, but SOU still managed to shoot 51.7 percent from the field for the game. The Knights finished at 41.3 percent, and McDermott said it was the Raider defense, as usual, that generated offense and led to the victory. "We're playing well defensively right now," McDermott said. "And the better you play there, the more it helps you offensively." SOU's only deficits all night were 2-0 and 4-2. After Warner Pacific junior forward Matt Segrin drilled a jump shot to end a five-minute scoring drought for both teams and pull the Knights within 7-6, the Raiders opened up leads of 19-11 and 27-18 before taking a 31-22 edge into halftime. By the 17-minute mark of the second half, SOU was on top by a 40-28 count, and Warner Pacific never crept closer than 10 the rest of the way. The final margin marks the Raiders' most lopsided victory of the season. "Every time we come in here, we feel like we're gonna win," Tacheny said of SOU's home-court advantage. Two games out of fourth place and a postseason berth entering Saturday's affair, the Raiders have five regular-season games remaining. Three of those are on the road, where SOU is 1-10 this season. But all three away contests are also against teams the Raiders have already defeated this season, starting with SOU's next game Saturday at Oregon Tech. WARNER PACIFIC (13-12, 6-6) Best 2-2 0-0 5, Angove 1-2 0-0 3, Decker 2-6 1-2 6, Segrin 4-10 5-6 13, Toney 3-6 0-0 8, Hudson 1-2 0-0 2, Huston 1-1 2-2 4, Twiss 3-7 2-2 9, Tilman 2-6 0-1 4, Sandoval 0-1 1-2 1, Walker 0-0 0-0 0, Sippel 0-3 0-0 0, Woodlee 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-46 11-15 55. SOUTHERN OREGON (10-13, 6-7) Barnes 3-8 0-0 8, Olson 6-15 5-6 17, Knudsen 2-4 0-0 5, Tacheny 8-13 7-8 23, Zosel 2-2 0-1 4, Caughell 4-5 1-2 9, Coen 1-3 0-0 2, DeGroot 1-1 0-1 2, Rodriguez 2-3 0-0 4, Sorensen 1-1 2-2 4, Lacy 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 30-58 15-20 78. Halftime-Southern Oregon 31, Warner Pacific 22. 3-point goals-W. Pacific 6-17 (Best 1-1, Angove 1-1, Decker 1-4, Segrin 0-1, Toney 2-4, Hudson 0-1, Twiss 1-3, Tillman 0-1, Sippel 0-1), SOU 3-14 (Barnes 2-5, Olson 0-4, Knudsen 1-3, Caughell 0-1, Lacy 0-1). Rebounds-W. Pacific 21 (Segrin 5), SOU 41 (Zosel 9). Assists-W. Pacific 14 (Best 3, Huston 3), SOU 18 (Caughell 5). Team fouls-W. Pacific 17, SOU 17. A-450. Reach reporter Tim Pyle at 776-4483 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.