SOU to return to Ashland for games with College of Idaho and Eastern Oregon
A night after a taxing setback, the Southern Oregon men’s basketball team needed every bit of Gio Evanson’s career-best output to fend off Walla Walla (Washington) and secure a 92-87 victory Saturday at Windemuth Court.
Evanson, a 6-foot-6 sophomore guard, scored 30 points on 11-of-15 shooting and came through repeatedly down the stretch to make the Raiders 8-6 overall and 5-1 in the Cascade Conference.
Winless WWU (0-12, 0-6) made the Raiders work for their sixth win in seven games. The Wolves lost an early 10-point lead but trimmed SOU’s edge to 82-79 before Evanson stepped back for a long two with 1:44 to go. It was a three-point game again when Evanson worked inside for his third three-point play of the night with 36 seconds left.
Evanson scored 12 in the second half along with Brady Rice, who totaled a season-high 17 points on five field-goal attempts. Elijah Jackson added 16 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
Dalan Soren, a 7-foot center, kept WWU in the game with 26 points. He shot 12-of-19 and was joined in double figures by four more Wolves as they hit at 50% from the field as a team.
The game was the Raiders’ fifth in a row that was within five points in the final five minutes. Their biggest edge was at the free-throw line, where they got up 25 more attempts (25-of-34) than WWU (7-of-9). Jackson and Rice both went 7-of-8 and Evanson was perfect on five tries.
Evanson has averaged 22.8 points during a breakout four-game stretch, raising his season mark to 12.7.
He and the Raiders are back in Ashland next week for their biggest homestand of the year. They’ll meet College of Idaho on Friday and Eastern Oregon on Saturday – entering the weekend tied for second place with both teams – before hosting first-place Oregon Tech on Jan. 13.
This story first appeared on the Southern Oregon University Sports Information website, souraiders.com.
