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Grants Pass trips cold South photo by Alex Szlachtianshyn Wednesday Jan 10, 2001 at 2:00 AM Feb 16, 2011 at 8:29 AM Kris Henry South Medford has stumbled upon a bit of a problem if it truly aims to contend for the Southern Oregon Conference boys basketball title. Whenever the Panthers play a formidable foe, their shooting eye tends to close. Facing a stiff, but passable, test in No. 2-ranked Grants Pass, South Medford simply was horrid from the field in letting the Cavemen escape the Panthers? gym with a 49-39 victory. South Medford followed a 7-for-30 shooting effort in the first half with a 4-for-25 swing in the second half for 20 percent accuracy against good, but certainly not stifling, defense. I don't know if it gets any uglier, said South Medford coach Dennis Murphy. You can't win if you can't shoot, and we're not very good shooters. Some of it you have to attribute to Grants Pass? defense, but you have to step up and make shots. In a game billed as a toe-to-toe confrontation between the league's top giants, the Ian Elseth-Eric Fiegi dual was made into an afterthought thanks to South's struggles from the field. For the record, Fiegi had six of South's seven field goals in the first half and finished with 14 points, nine rebounds and seven blocked shots. Elseth, last season's SOC player of the year, scored the first nine points for the Cavemen but was saddled with early fouls and wasn't asked to make much of an impact in the second half. We didn't shut Fiegi down by any means but Kory Mahr did a good job of at least containing him, Grants Pass coach Bill Cowell said in praising his backup center. Tuesday's win helped Grants Pass remain unscathed at 13-0 and 3-0 in the Southern Oregon Conference, while South Medford dropped to 9-4 and 1-2 in league. Any time you win over here it's a special thing, said Cowell. South deserves a lot of credit because they defended us really well and scoring points didn't come easy for us tonight. The points may not have come easy, but at least they made it to the scoreboard as Grants Pass? grip on the contest was never seriously threatened. The Cavemen converted 7 of 8 free throws in the final 2:10 to ice a game in which they never trailed. As long as we're not turning the ball over we've got pretty good free-throw shooters, said Cowell, so if we get to the free-throw line, we feel pretty good. With Andy Dobner in his face much of the night, South's Ryan Heil never quite found a rhythm. Heil, the fourth-leading scorer in the SOC, went 0-for-12 from the field and didn't score until late in the third quarter. Heil finished with six points, as did John McKay, who was only 2-for-10 from the field. Fiegi and some sound Panther defense paved the way for South's only ray of hope at a late run against Grants Pass, with the 6-foot-8 post swatting away potential layups time and again. South unfortunately couldn't do much with its second chances. Every time he'd make a block we'd get the ball back but what did we do with it? said Murphy. We'd just burp it up. Burp, burp, burp. Tyler York hit two big 3-pointers in the first half and scored a team-high 14 points for the Cavemen, while Jerrod Dastrup used two long-range bombs to score 10. Grants Pass played without starting guard Brant Minor, who was forced to sit one game after being ejected from last week's game against Klamath Union. South has little time to find an answer to its shooting woes with North Medford coming to the Panther gym Friday. The Black Tornado dropped to 2-1 in league after Tuesday's 70-54 loss at Roseburg. Friday's game time has been moved up to 5:15 p.m., with the varsity girls game between South and North slated to follow at 7. — GRANTS PASS (49)� Elseth 9, Berg 7, York 14, Dastrup 10, Lathen 3, Mahr 4, Dobner 2, Olson 0. Totals: 15-46 14-18 49. — SOUTH MEDFORD (39) — — Fiegi 14, Marshall 3, Johnson 4, McKay 6, Heil 6, Lower 4, Mulhollen 2, Tomlins 0, Smith 0, Hilgendorf 0, Burnett 0. Totals: 11-55 17-21 39. — Grants Pass..............................................16 14 8 11 — 49 South Medford..........................................8 13 7 11 — 39 3-point goals — Grants Pass 4-12 (York 2, Dastrup 2), South Medford 0-15. JV score — Grants Pass 43, South Medford 39. — Reach reporter at 776-4488, or e-mail