Hall of Fame
The 1996-97 women's basketball team qualified for the NAIA Division II National Tournament for the first time in program history, sparking a three-year run of national tournament appearances. The 1996-97 Raiders were the first to win 25 games and vaulted all the way to a school-best No. 4 ranking midway through the season after beginning the year unranked.
Southern Oregon finished the year with a perfect 11-0 home record, including a victory over eventual national champion Northwest Nazarene, and earned an at-large bid to the national tournament with the No. 7 ranking. At that point the Raiders went on the greatest postseason run in SOU basketball history, blowing out Cardinal Stritch 68-47 in the opener and taking down fifth-seeded tournament host Tri-State University 65-59. In the quarterfinal round, the Raiders came back from an eight-point second-half deficit to upset fourth-ranked Brescia 71-64 and earn a trip to the NAIA Final Four. Southern Oregon missed a pair of potential game-winning shots in the final 10 seconds of the national semifinal to fall to Black Hills State 80-79, but the Raiders remain the only SOU basketball team to advance to the NAIA Final Four.
Three-time NAIA All-American Melissa Bogh led the way for SOU, becoming the program's all-time leading scorer and the Cascade Collegiate Conference's first four-time all-conference honoree while claiming Player of the Year honors. Michelle Westerberg also earned all-conference honors, and head coach Shirley Huyett was named CCC and NAIA District II Coach of the Year.
