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Panthers survive scare, slip past Benson By DON HUNT Mail Tribune PORTLAND - Despite the fact that South Medford entered the boys Class 4A state basketball tournament as the No. 1 seed and Benson Tech as the No. 16 seed, the Panthers expected a tough game Tuesday night at Memorial Coliseum. And they got one. Eric Fiegi scored 24 points, Ryan Heil added 19 and Alan Johnson had 10 as the Panthers struggled to a 67-57 victory that earned them few style points and produced a collective sigh of relief. "It kind of felt like we were playing our first game all over again - we hadn't had a big game in a long time," said Heil, who hit several big shots throughout. "The first one is always tough to get, but we got it and now we can just go out and play our game." The victory, the Panthers' 24th in 25 games, advanced them to the quarterfinal round where they'll meet Beaverton at 3 p.m. Thursday. Benson, 19-9, meets Clackamas in a quarterfinal consolation game at 10:30 a.m. today. Heil's 3-pointer from the baseline gave South Medford a 50-36 lead with 6 minutes, 45 seconds remaining, but Benson went on a 10-0 run over the next 2:03 to throw a big scare into the Southern Oregon Conference champions. South Medford coach Dennis Murphy called a timeout to calm down his team with 4:27 to play, and then Johnson, who had missed his first five free throws of the night, sank both ends of a one-and-one to give the Panthers a little breathing room at 52-46. Heil made another free throw on South Medford's next possession, and when he missed the second half of a one-and-one, Fiegi muscled in the rebound putback that boosted the Panthers' advantage to 55-46 with 2:36 left. South Medford made 15 of 16 free throws in the fourth period to beat back Benson's comeback effort. "None of our kids had ever played a game in this building before and I think that was a factor in this game," said Murphy, whose Panthers outscored Benson 17-11 over the final 4:11. "We had spurts where we played well and spurts where we didn't, but we showed our composure by making all those free throws down the stretch." The Panthers also leaned on their defense. Fiegi blocked four shots and altered several others, while Marshall and Johnson both took charges in the game's final five minutes. Marshall, the quarterback on the school's football team, also provided some words of encouragement late in the game when he huddled around his teammates during a free throw. "I just said, 'Let's keep our composure and play to win,'" Marshall said. "We didn't come up here to get beat." Bruce Jones led Benson with 20 points. The two squads struggled to a 4-4 tie through the first four minutes of the game before Heil hit back-to-back jumpers and Fiegi added a layup off a lob pass from Eric Fischer to give the Panthers a 10-4 lead. South Medford led 14-7 after one period and then, after Benson had crawled within 22-17 with 2:12 left in the first half, scored the final eight points of the half to take a 30-17 lead at the intermission. Heil's pull-up 17-foot jumper with two seconds left on the clock capped the 8-0 run. The Panthers threatened to blow the game open a few times in the second half, but the Techmen, who won three subtournament games to reach the final 16, kept coming back. "They may have been the No. 16 seed, but they tied for second in the PIL and I've never known a No. 2 team from that league to be bad," Murphy said. "They're just so darn quick that anytime we got careless with the ball they took it away from us. "But we survived and we're moving on." BENSON TECH (57) - Jones 5-17 8-10 20, Green 3-10 1-2 8, Sanders 2-2 0-0 4, Tillery 1-1 0-0 3, Moore 2-8 2-2 6, McKenzie 0-3 0-0 0, Allen 2-3 0-0 4, Broussard 0-2 0-0 0, Monk 2-7 2-2 7, Davis 1-1 1-2 3, Stelly 1-2 0-1 2. Totals: 19-56 14-19 57. SOUTH MEDFORD (67) - Fiegi 6-11 12-14 24, Heil 7-12 3-4 19, Walport 1-5 2-2 5, Johnson 2-4 6-11 10, Marshall 2-5 0-2 5, Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Lower 0-1 0-0 0, Fischer 1-2 0-0 2, Hagert 0-0 0-0 0, Olson 0-1 2-2 2. Totals: 19-42 25-35 67. Benson Tech ........................................ 7 10 17 23 - 57 South Medford .................................. 14 16 13 24 - 67 3-point goals - Benson Tech 5-16 (Jones 2-6, Green 1-5, Tillery 1-1, Monk 1-3, Stelly 0-1), South Medford 4-9 (Heil 2-4, Walport 1-3, Marshall 1-2). Rebounds -- Benson Tech 34 (Moore 7), South Medford 36 (Fiegi 10). Assists - Benson Tech 9 (Monk 3), South Medford 9 (Heil 2, Johnson 2, Marshall 2, Fischer 2). Total fouls - Benson 26, South Medford 15. Fouled out - Moore. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.