Madonna beaten in NAIA tourney opener

The Madonna University men's basketball team - making its inaugural appearance in the NAIA Division II National Tournament - met its match Wednesday in Southern Oregon.

The No. 18-seeded Raiders punched their ticket into Friday's Round of 16 with a convincing 83-66 opening-round victory over No. 14-seeded MU at the College of the Ozarks' (Mo.) Keeter Gymnasium.

Southern Oregon was led by sophomore forward Eric Thompson, a former walk-on from Oregon State and minor league baseball player in the LA Dodgers farm system.

The 6-foot-8 Thompson scored tournament-best 30 points, going 5-for-6 from beyond the arc.

He's a great player and I thought we didn't do enough to slow him down,'' MU coach Noel Emenhiser said. Once he got a rhythm, he was hitting shots - tough shots, open shots - he made everything. But we kind of let him get away from us and get open a lot more than we would have liked to.''

Kyle Tedder also drained five three-pointers en route to a 20-point effort, while David Sturner added 10 points and six rebounds.

Tied at 11, Southern Oregon opened up a 25-14 lead behind its three-point shooting, draining three during a three-minute stretch in the first half.

The Raiders led 51-38 at the break, while shooting 50 percent (7-of-14) from beyond the arc.