KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. - The #13 Oregon Tech (1-3) men's basketball team battled hard but ultimately fell to William Jessup (5-0) in the Lithia Classic title game. William Jessup led for a bulk of the contest and carried their momentum down the stretch to an 89-78 victory.
 
Following the loss, head coach Justin Parnell said, "Congratulations to Jessup on a great weekend. They are a tough-minded and talented group. We struggled to guard them defensively, especially the ball screen and they did a nice job of exploiting that. We have a great group of kids; we just have to be better."
 
William Jessup 89 #13 Oregon Tech 78
 
With both sides having won their first Lithia Classic game, the championship was up for grabs.
 
In their second meeting of the year, Oregon Tech was looking for revenge after Jessup beat the Owls 68-64 last Saturday.
 
In the first half, the two teams battled, but the Warriors shot 19-30 from the field which made it difficult for the Hustlin' Owls to hang around. Tech tried to keep up and shot 15 of 29 which was good enough to keep them within six at the break.
 
To start the second half, OIT stormed out to a 7-0 run to take a 46-45 lead and fire up the home crowd. After Tech jumped ahead, the Warriors would control the rest of the contest, and the Owls just couldn't get over the hump.
 
The Hustlin' Owls had five players in double figures:
 
Kaison Faust: 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting with 6 rebounds
Keegan Shivers: 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting
Kam Osborn: 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting
Scotty Burge: 11 points on3-of-5 shooting
Garret Albrecht: 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting
 
Overall, Tech shot well at a 50% clip, but they couldn't keep up with Jessup who shot 60%.
 
The Owls will be back in action next week when they travel to Ashland to compete in the SOU Flagship Inn Classic with games at 1:00 PM Friday and Saturday.
 
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