Mountaineers avoid unranked Southern Oregon’s upset bid

The 21st-ranked Eastern Oregon men used a 17-2 first half run and held on as they scored a 75-57 victory over Southern Oregon Saturday at McNeal Pavilion.

Eastern Oregon improved to 16-4 overall and 8-3 in Cascade Conference play. Southern Oregon dropped to 10-10 overall and 2-9 in conference action.

Eastern’s Josh Cottle led all scorers with 18 points. Dan Stafford and Jordan Gregg both had 17 points.

Humphrey Jackson finished with 13 points for the Raiders and Drew Herrera and David Grant each had 11.

The Raiders looked up to the challenge against the nationally-ranked Mountaineers, knotting the score at 18-18 on a Ryan Staker layup.

The Mountaineers turned it on and took off — going on a 17-2 run to take a 35-20 lead with 3:52 to play in the first half.

Southern Oregon did make a run in the second half, cutting the lead to single digits twice, but couldn’t get any closer.

EOU women too much

for Raiders

Fresh off a bitter loss to College of Idaho the night before, the Southern Oregon women’s basketball team was unable to recover as they fell to Eastern Oregon 74-56 Saturday at McNeal Pavilion.

The loss now leaves the Raiders at 15-7 overall and 4-7 in conference play.  Eastern Oregon improves to 14-7 overall and 8-3 in the Cascade Conference.

Southern Oregon senior Jacki Speer led with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Eastern Oregon’s Samantha Flett also finished with 20 points.

Despite trailing early on, Southern Oregon refused to give in and cut the Eastern lead to 32-28 as the teams left at the end of the first half.

The second half saw the Raiders tighten up defensively, yet they still could not find a way to capitalize on their offensive opportunities.

Eastern Oregon tormented the Raiders with three pointers shooting 43 percent from the 3-point line, while managing to shoot 52 percent from the field.

Southern Oregon could only muster 35 percent from the field.