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Free throws, Bearcats sink Raiders By DON HUNT Mail Tribune ASHLAND - With both teams having a reputation for playing aggressive, tenacious, in-your-face defense, it only figured that free throw shooting would play a big part in Saturday's men's basketball matchup between Southern Oregon University and Willamette. And it did. Willamette sank 18 of 21 attempts from the charity stripe while the Raiders made only 7 of 17, enabling the visiting Bearcats to register a 59-56 victory in the Flagship Inn Classic at McNeal Pavilion. Oregon Tech cruised to a 101-58 victory over the University of California-Santa Cruz in Saturday's other tournament matchup. Ryan Hepp and B.J. Dobrkovsky scored 14 points each and Marques Johnson added 12 points and nine rebounds for Willamette, which evened its record at 2-2 and handed the Raiders their first loss following three victories. Hamilton Barnes scored 13 points and Mat Zosel had 11 points and 14 rebounds to lead Southern Oregon. "I'm not sure we can play much tougher defensively than we did tonight," SOU coach Brian McDermott said. "We played good 'D' on the ball, we fought through screens and we hustled all over the court. "But if you can't make your free throws in a tight game there's a good chance you're going to get beat." Zosel struggled the most at the line as the 6-foot-3 senior forward went 0-for-6 before connecting on his final two. "I know it's eating him up inside," McDermott said. "He's worked hard to get better. He comes in every morning and shoots a couple hundred. But tonight he struggled." Southern Oregon hit just 9 of 25 shots from the field and 2 of 6 from the line in the first half and yet trailed just 28-23 at the break. The Bearcats then outscored SOU 7-2 in the opening 11/2 minutes of the second half to extend their lead to 35-25, and from there the Raiders had to play catchup the rest of the way. SOU runs a somewhat complex triangle offense, and with five new players on its roster this season, not everyone knows precisely what they're doing yet. "It's going to take some time to get into the flow of this offense," Barnes said. "But once we find our rhythm we're going to be tough because we do play good defense and we've got the talent to win a lot of games." As poorly as the Raiders shot, they did manage to string together eight straight points a little more than midway through the second half to earn a 43-43 tie. Freshman post James Tharp had four of the points, including an 10-foot jumper from the middle of the key that tied the game with 7:02 remaining. Brandon Knudsen then stole the ball and drove the court in an effort to give the Raiders their first lead of the second half, but his 12-foot jumper missed the mark. Willamette's Miles Sandgathe then made two free throws at the other end and on the Bearcats' next possession Johnson knifed inside for a layup to give his team a 47-43 lead with 5:23 to play. Johnson, a 6-5 junior, is the son of former Oregon State and Portland Trail Blazers star Steve Johnson. "He's a versatile player," Willamette coach Gordie James said of Marques Johnson. "And in our motion offense that's a big plus. He's worked very hard on his game." The Raiders never again drew even, but they made things interesting in the final 32 seconds when Barnes banked in a 3-pointer and, following a Willamette turnover, Zosal hit two free throws to cut a 55-48 deficit to 55-53 with 30.8 seconds remaining. But Hepp, who made a key steal and layup one minute earlier, sank both ends of a one-and-one with 23.8 seconds to play and Dobrkovsky made two more shots from the line with 8.2 seconds to go to give Willamette a 59-53 advantage. Another 3-pointer by Barnes in the final two seconds accounted for the final margin. "That was two good defensive teams going toe-to-toe for 40 minutes," James said. "Every shot was earned." WILLAMETTE (59) Hepp 5-9 4-4 14, Dobrkovsky 3-11 6-7 14, Johnson 5-11 2-2 12, Canaday 1-6 0-0 2, Moshofsky 0-0 3-4 3, House 0-2 0-0 0, Sandgathe 4-6 2-2 10, Rahlfs 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 19-50 18-21 59. SOUTHERN OREGON (56) Barnes 4-8 1-2 13, Olson 2-5 0-0 4, DeGroot 3-10 3-4 9, Tacheny 1-2 1-2 3, Zosel 4-7 2-8 11, Caughell 2-6 0-1 4, Sorensen 0-3 0-0 0, Coen 0-1 0-0 0, Knudsen 0-2 0-0 0, Lacy 2-6 0-0 4, Tharp 4-7 0-0 8. Totals: 22-57 7-17 56. Halftime - Willamette 28, S. Oregon 23. 3-point shots - Willamette 3-15 (Hepp 0-1, Dobrkovsky 2-8, Canaday 0-1, Newton 1-4, House 0-1), Southern Oregon 5-14 (Barnes 4-6, Olson 0-2, DeGroot 0-1, Zosel 1-3, Caughell 0-1, Knudsen 0-1). Rebounds - Willamette 37 (Johnson 9), S. Oregon 36 (Zosel 14). Assists - Willamette 12 (Newton 5), S. Oregon 17 (Barnes 4, Caughell 4). Turnovers - Willamette 18, S. Oregon 16. 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.