Southern Oregon guard Elijah Jackson poured in 19 points during Friday's win over Montana Tech. (Photo by John Duncan)

No. 11-seeded Raiders upend No. 6 Montana Tech behind big efforts from Reichle, Jackson

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — After months of knocking on the door, Southern Oregon finished the job against an elite opponent. The timing couldn’t have been better.

The No. 11-seeded Raiders pulled off the biggest upset of the NAIA National Tournament’s first round Friday, holding on for dear life to defeat No. 6-seeded Montana Tech 84-81 at the MacArthur Center. A sizzling 12-of-22 performance from 3-point range enabled them to build a 22-point lead, and they made six consecutive free throws over the final 13 seconds before watching a half-court attempt from the Diggers go wide at the buzzer.

Gabe Reichle — who’d missed SOU’s last four games with an arm injury and was just freed of a hard cast in recent days — hit 4-of-5 attempts from deep and scored 21 points in his return. Elijah Jackson poured in 19, and the third senior in the starting backcourt, Mason Whittaker, had nine points, five assists and the biggest shot of the evening.

The win was the Raiders’ first in the tournament since the NAIA’s two divisions merged and the field expanded to 64 teams three years ago. They upped their record to 21-10 and advanced to play No. 3-seeded and No. 8-ranked The Master’s (Calif.) at 6 p.m. Saturday in the Round of 32.

The Diggers, who captured the Frontier Conference title and had been ranked as high as No. 5 in the Top 25 poll before landing at No. 21, finished with a 24-7 record. They’d gotten through to the second round each of the last three seasons.

In addition to shooting 55% against the seventh-best defense in the country, the Raiders committed only seven turnovers. They were up 16 by halftime, and Khalil Chatman’s dunk off a Whittaker dump-off gave them their biggest lead at 59-37 with 16:22 to play. The Diggers promptly responded with a 20-4 run, but Jackson steadied SOU with a three-point play and a dish to Reichle for 3 on back-to-back possessions, making it 69-57 at the nine-minute mark.

“Elijah Jackson is playing at an unbelievably high level and our seniors refused to let us lose tonight,” SOU coach Matt Zosel said. “I’m proud of the contributions we got from so many different guys.”

Their work was far from over. They went nearly six minutes without a point, allowing Tech to get within one on a pair of Hayden Diekhans free throws, before Whittaker ended the drought by draining a contested 3 at the end of the shot clock to go up 74-70 with 2:35 left. Tech’s Ifeanyi Okeke dunked on the other end, but Whittaker came through again with an assist to Joe Juhala to push the lead back to four.

It was a two-point game with 13 seconds left when Bryce Dyer made a perfect trip to the line. Up two again six seconds later, Jack Chlumak calmly drilled two free throws. Chlumak hit two more with a second left, and a half-court heave later the Raiders could finally exhale.

They never trailed after Whittaker, Jackson and Reichle hit triples on their first three possessions. Dyer supplied seven points, 12 rebounds and three assists, and Juhala scored eight of his 12 in the first half.

Diekhans, the Frontier Player of the Year, registered 20 points for Tech, which shot 51% but was outscored by 15 from the 3-point line.

Nine of the Raiders’ 10 losses had been decided by five or fewer points — six of those against Top 25 squads. They’re over the hump entering a matchup with The Master’s, the Golden State Athletic Conference champion, which held off No. 14 seed Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) for a 69-65 win.

“They’re a very athletic, well-coached team,” Zosel said. “The effort tomorrow will need to be of the same caliber as tonight’s.”