The Southern Oregon women used a 25-8 start to the second half and rolled past Warner Pacific 68-55 in the opening round of the Cascade Conference Postseason Tournament tonight in Portland.

Southern Oregon improved to 20-10 on the season and will travel to top-seeded College of Idaho Friday night in the conference semifinals. Warner Pacific finishes the season 18-10.

Jacki Speer (Centralia, Wash./Centralia) led the Raiders with 20 points and 15 rebounds. Krystal Smith (Olympia, Wash./River Ridge) had one of her better games of her college career, going for 16 points on 8-for-11 shooting from the field and seven rebounds. Jamie Roupp (Ashland, Ore./Ashland) added 14 points to go along with five assists.

Shayla Fetters finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Knights.

The Raiders opened the game with a 12-7 advantage after holding the Knights to 2-for-16 shooting, but the hosts came back with a 9-0 run to take a 16-12 lead. The two teams battled back-and-forth as the Knights took a 31-29 lead at the half despite 13 points and 11 rebounds by Speer in the first half.

The Raiders opened the second half with six straight points, including four straight by Speer for a 35-31 lead and forced the Knights into a timeout. Emily Brookins (Central Point, Ore./Crater) followed the timeout with her second jumper of the opening minutes of the half to push the lead to 37-31 before Warner Pacific got on the board for the first time in the second half.

After the Knights cut the lead to three, Smith and Roupp then hit back-to-back shots to push the lead to 46-39 with 12:51 to play.

Smith then converted back-to-back shots to give the Raiders a 52-39 lead with 8:32 to play and Roupp nailed another jumper for a 54-39 lead and another Warner Pacific timeout. The 12-0 run for the Raiders capped a 25-8 run for SOU to start the second half. Following that, the Knights never threatened again.

The SOU defense held Warner Pacific to 31 percent shooting for the game and forced 16 turnovers.

Looking forward to Friday night, the Raiders will face the Yotes for the third time this year. College of Idaho won the first two meetings.