SOU-Menlo Boxscore

The 19th-ranked Southern Oregon women's basketball team overcame a horrid early shooting performance to knock off Menlo 91-72 tonight at McNeal Pavilion in the final game of the Coming Attractions Theatres Classic.

The Raiders are now 6-0 on the season. Menlo dropped to 1-1. SOU is off until Dec. 2 when they host Simpson University.

The trio of Ashley Baker (Grand Junction, Colo./Fruita), Jacki Speer (Centralia, Wash./Centralia) and Whitney Scott (Tumwater, Wash./Black Hills) led the Raiders with 16 points each. Baker also added 10 rebounds. Rhiannon Dickison (Redding, Calif./Anderson) added 11 points.

“Our team defense stepped up in the second half and Ashley was a big part of that,” SOU Head Coach Lynn Kennedy said. “Ashley dominated on the defensive end in the second half and that got her going offensively.”

SOU had trouble getting shots to fall in the early going, hovering around 23 percent for most of the first half before warming up and cutting the Menlo lead to 41-31 at the half and finishing the first half shooting 39 percent.

A 3-pointer by Menlo's Kelci Fushikoshi pushed the Oaks lead to 44-33 early in the second half before SOU took off.

A layup by Scott and a 3-pointer by Dickison cut the Menlo lead to 44-38 and forced the Oaks into a timeout.

The Menlo lead stayed around four points until Scott nailed a jumper to get the Raiders within one at 53-42. Scott then hit a 3-pointer from the wing to give the Raiders the lead for good at 55-54 with 13:12 to play and they never looked back.

SOU finished the game shooting 52 percent and forced 30 turnovers with 16 steals.

“We talked at halftime about getting our offense going from the inside-out,” Kennedy said. “We established our inside game especially in the second half and it opened up the outside shots. It's all about our offensive flow. If we get that going we can be pretty good.”

Fushikoshi led Menlo with a game-high 24 points.