Raiders rally again to down Yotes, move back into first place - Cascade Collegiate Conference Skip To Main Content

Cascade Collegiate Conference

Raiders rally again to down Yotes, move back into first place
Joel Spear had 21 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists Sunday. (Al Case, Ashland Daily Photo)

Raiders rally again to down Yotes, move back into first place

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ASHLAND – On Sunday afternoon at Mountain Avenue Gym, the Southern Oregon University men's basketball team erased a second-half deficit to snatch a key Cascade Conference victory from the jaws of defeat.

And, no, the previous sentence was not lifted from a template – it's just a formula the 14th-ranked Raiders have utterly abused.

Their latest work of self-plagiarism was a 76-72 win over College of Idaho, the 10th conference win in which they've trailed during the second half, and put them back into a first-place tie for the first time in a month. The Raiders (23-5 overall) and eighth-ranked Northwest Christian are locked up with 16-2 CCC records with two games to go in the regular season and will meet next Friday in Eugene. SOU won its first meeting with the Beacons, 80-75, on Dec. 6 in Ashland.

Celebrating his senior day, SOU point guard Joel Spear helped run the Raiders' win streak to eight games with 21 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, a night after posting 12 assists. Spear scored the game-winning points with 34 seconds left when he drove the lane and was fouled shooting a jumper, breaking a 72-all tie by sinking both free throws.

The Raiders had trailed 59-51 with 12 minutes left.

The Coyotes (16-12, 11-8), who were the preseason favorite to win their third straight CCC championship, had two chances two answer: Dominique Jordan missed a 3-pointer with 14 seconds left, Joey Nebeker collected the offensive rebound, and Aitor Zubizarreta missed everything on a contested attempt at the bucket with two seconds left.

Ben DeSaulnier, who scored 17 points, came up with the rebound and sealed the win with two free throws. He went 9-for-11 from the stripe in the game and 23-for-25 on the weekend.

Nebeker scored 19 and Zubizaretta had 18 to lead the Yotes. They shot 8-of-14 from 3-point range in the first half, taking a 45-41 lead into the break, but just 5-of-22 in the second.

SOU is 12-0 at home and ran the table in the regular season for the first time since 1941-42. The Raiders are assured no worse than the No. 2 seed in the upcoming CCC tournament – they'll host the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. on Feb. 24 – and would clinch the No. 1 seed with a win next Friday.

Spear lifted them out of trouble again and again. Down 38-29 with five minutes left in the first half, he scored seven straight points with an and-one and a 3-pointer; and down 45-41 to start the second half, he made 3-pointers on SOU's first two possessions.

When they trailed 59-51, the Raiders made their move starting with a DeSaulnier jumper and free throw, then pulled to within three when Spear stripped Nebeker and hit Tristen Holmes for a bucket at the end of a fast break. SOU finally tied it at 61-all when Jordan West drilled a 3-pointer and Holmes found Spear in the lane for a basket with 8:40 to go.

The teams went back-and-forth from there, finally locking up at 72-all again when Dominique Jordan hit a triple with 46 seconds to play.

 

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