Sophomore Alexi Smith (Bakersfield, Calif./Stockdale) had a huge first half to lead the Southern Oregon women to a 65-53 victory over CSU-Maritime today during the opener of the Yellow Cab Classic at Oregon Tech.

Southern Oregon improved to 7-5 on the season and will face William Jessup for the third time this year tomorrow at 3:30 in Klamath Falls. Cal Maritime dropped to 1-8 on the year.

With big first half numbers, Smith finished the game with 19 points and 15 rebounds. Whitney Scott (Tumwater, Wash./Black Hills) had eight points with a pair of 3-pointers.

Smith helped the Raiders jump out to a 34-21 halftime lead after netting 14 first half points on 7-for-9 shooting from the field and also added 10 rebounds in the first half.

The Raiders pushed the lead to 17 early in the second half with a jumper by Jamie Roupp (Ashland, Ore./Ashland), a 3-pointer by Scott and a free throw by Nicole Mowbray (Oak Harbor, Wash./Oak Harbor).

CSUM trimmed the lead down to six at 44-38 with just over eight minutes to play, but the Raiders came back and a 3-pointer by Lindsey Scheffler (Castle Rock, Wash./Toutle Lake) capped a 10-0 SOU run for a 54-38 lead.

Overall, 11 of the 12 Raiders scored the victory.