Cavs End Season with Win over Southern Oregon

2/21/2009 12:13:35 AM

PORTLAND, Ore. –Taking their third win in its final six contests, the Concordia University men’s basketball season came to an end on Saturday night with an 80-71 victory over Southern Oregon.

While Concordia’s season concludes with a 10-20 overall mark, SOU (9-20, 7-12 CCC) will continue on as the No. 7 in the Cascade Collegiate Conference tournament. The Raiders will travel to Eastern Oregon (22-6 15-5 CCC) to face the second-seeded Mountaineers on Wednesday, Feb. 25.

Mini bursts by both teams summed up the first half of play. The Cavaliers opened with a 19-11 lead following a Gage Aker seven minutes in, but the Raiders would bounce back with a10-2 spurt to come within a single point.

CU’s Alex Tiefenthaler highlighted a 13-5 surge to give the Cavs a nine-point lead, but behind 13 first-half points by Jarrad Childs, SOU was able tie the battle at 35-35 in the final minute of play in the opening half. Concordia’s Steven Vaughan used a fast-break drive to the basket to put the Cavs up 37-35 at intermission.

The second half featured five ties, the last of which occurred with 4:03 to play in regulation with the score nodded at 67-67. The final four minutes was dominated by the home team as CU would accumulate 13 of the last 17 points to stake claim on a nine-point win.

Vaughan led all scorers with 23 points after firing from 9-of-14 from the field and 3-of-5 from behind the three-point line. Fellow senior, Desmond Meray added 11 while redshirt freshman tallied 11 points off the bench, all of which occurred in the second half of play.

After being shutout in eth first half, Austin Wolfer posted 20 points in the final 20 minutes. Childs netted 19 and Josh McDermott scored 12 for the Raiders.

Concordia shot 50 percent in both halves after connecting on 14-of-28 in the first and 17-of-34 in the second. SOU converted 42.9 percent of its attempts and just 26.7 percent (27-of-63) of its shots from three-point territory (4-of-15).