KLAMATH FALLS – The Southern Oregon men's basketball team paid for its late mistakes with another tight loss Friday night at Danny Miles Court, falling 77-75 to William Jessup (Calif.) at the Lithia-Oregon Tech Classic.
With 15 seconds left, Myles Corey's first free throw tied the game and his second gave the Warriors the lead. They kept it as Josh Meyer's 3-point attempt from the top of the key rimmed out with one second left.
The Raiders had taken a 74-71 lead with 1:44 remaining as Jackson Smyth found Mason Whittaker open in the corner for a tiebreaking 3-pointer. They were up one with the ball and 31 seconds on the clock when Jake Virga committed a turnover from the backcourt. He was whistled for a foul seconds later, and Corey missed a pair of free throws but got another chance thanks to a Tim Strijaous offensive rebound.
The Raiders have lost their three games by a total of nine points. This one featured 16 ties and 14 lead changes.
WJU improved to 4-0 behind Matthew Schmidt's 20 points and 10 rebounds. Cashemin Williams and Corey scored 14 apiece.
Meyer led SOU with 19 points and seven boards and Whittaker scored 14. Tez Allen totaled seven points, nine rebounds and four assists, Joe Juhala scored nine, and Brett Hollins had seven points and seven rebounds off the bench.
The Raiders will play Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) at 5:30 p.m. Saturday in the Classic.