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Despite seeing a commanding ten point lead slowly disappear, the Southern Oregon Women's Basketball team still managed to overcome arch-rivals Oregon Tech 68-63 tonight at McNeal Pavilion.

With the win, the Raiders improve to 15-5 overall and 4-5 in conference play. The Owls dropped to 11-10 overall and are also 4-5 in conference play. Southern Oregon hosts College of Idaho next Friday night.

Senior center Jacki Speer (Centralia, Wash./Centralia) once again led the Raiders and all scorers by totally up 25 points for the night while teammate Ashley Baker (Grand Junction, Colo./Fruita) managed to grab 18 points. Both players had double-doubles as Speer had 16 rebounds and Baker finished with 13 boards.

Brittany Cherry led the way for the Owls with 14 points.

The first half started brightly for Southern Oregon as they quickly jumped to a commanding lead.

Despite holding the lead for the majority of the game, the Raiders shot just 40 percent from the field - while Oregon Tech shot 52 percent.

“I thought we controlled the first half well,” said SOU head coach Lynn Kennedy. “We knew they were going to make a run for it in the second half but I thought we held our own well.”

That run did come in the second half.

With less than five minutes remaining, OIT managed to grab the lead at 55-54.

Frantically the Raiders attempted to control the once more however OIT had no intention of letting the hosts back in as the teams traded the lead countless times over the end of the period.

Despite the relentless pressure, the Raiders still kept their cool and it was Speer who once again led the Raiders forward.

With 47 seconds remaining, the senior center stepped up and coolly nailed four straight free throws to give the Raiders the victory.