(Lewiston, ID) The Warriors nearly erased an 18-point deficit, but Southern Oregon handed LC State its first Cascade Conference road loss this season by a final of 73-69 in Ashland on Friday. MaCarhy Morris tallied a game-high 19 points for No. 21 LC State in the contest.
“We played pretty poorly, but credit to our guys for hanging in there and not wilting,” coach Austin Johnson said. “We had some disappointing possessions while down three points late in the game, but the reality is that this game was lost in the first half with our inability to finish inside or rebound. Excited to see how this group responds tomorrow.”
The loss drops the Warrior record to 13-4 on the season and 8-3 in CCC play.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Southern Oregon struck first with the first five points of the contest before Alton Hamilton put the Warriors on the board at 17:17. A jumper by Taden King cut the difference to one point a minute later and a triple by Morris evened the score 7-7 at 16:03. The Raiders pushed their lead to 14-7 by 12:22.
Four points from John Lustig had the Warriors trailing 17-10 at 10:38, but SOU remained in control. Baskets by Hamilton and Gorden Boykins, along with a foul shot by Dylan Skaife, had the margin at 24-16 with 6:08 to play in the half.
King drained a 3-pointer 30 seconds later and five straight points from Morris had the Warriors within 31-24 at 2:25. Lustig netted a deep 3 at the buzzer to send LC State into halftime trailing 36-28.
The Raiders pushed the margin back to 10 points two minutes into the second half and led 41-28 by 17:50. Lustig tallied the first Warrior basket of the half at 17:30 and Morris added another a minute later. SOU kept its foot on the gas to push the margin to 53-35 by 13:50.
Skaife drained a 3 and Peyton Knowles added a layup for a 53-40 difference, and Kellen Jedlicka put back an offensive board at 10:29. Boykins made it a nine-point run at 10:07 for a 53-44 deficit. After two free throws by Boykins, Skaife tallied five straight points for the Warriors to make it 58-51 with 8:18 to play.
The teams continued to trade baskets as the Raiders maintained their near 10-point edge. Morris scored five straight points for the Warriors to cut into the SOU lead 66-60 with under five minutes to go. A basket by Hamilton and free throw by Lustig had LC State within three, 66-63, in the final two minutes.
The Raiders hung on to edge the Warriors 73-69 despite baskets by Morris and Lustig in the final minute.
STAT RECAP
Morris led all scorers with 19 points on 8-for-16 shooting from the field. Lustig added 13 points and Hamilton tallied 11 points with nine rebounds. Freshman Skaife scored a career-high nine points with a pair of 3-pointers and Boykins grabbed a career-best nine boards.
The Warriors outshot SOU 41.5% to 38.8% and grabbed four more rebounds (45-41). The difference came down to free throws with the Raiders netting 13-of-23 and LC State converting 8-of-14. SOU took advantage of Warrior turnovers with 15 points off of nine, while LC State did not turn SOU’s four turnovers into points.
UP NEXT
LC State wraps up the road trip with a big matchup against Oregon Tech on Saturday. Tip off is set for 6 p.m. in Klamath Falls.
