williams
Al Case, Ashland Daily Photo
61
Southern Oregon SOU 22-3, 11-2 CCC
74
Winner Eastern Oregon EOU 22-4, 15-2 CCC
Southern Oregon SOU
22-3, 11-2 CCC
61
Final
74
Eastern Oregon EOU
22-4, 15-2 CCC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Southern Oregon SOU 18 21 14 8 61
Eastern Oregon EOU 20 16 23 15 74

Game Recap: Women's Basketball | | SOU Sports Information

EOU beats Raiders to force first-place tie

LA GRANDE – The Cascade Conference women's basketball landscape was shaken up Friday night to Southern Oregon's chagrin.

The 17th-ranked Eastern Oregon Mountaineers forced a tie for first place with No. 5 SOU, scoring a 74-61 upset at Quinn Coliseum with a dominant second half in which the Raiders were held to 11-of-32 shooting without a 3-point make. They've now dropped eight straight regular-season games on EOU's home court.

SOU (22-3 overall) and EOU (22-4) have matching 15-2 CCC records, but Oregon Tech remained a game back due to its overtime loss Friday at College of Idaho. If SOU and EOU both win out their last three regular-season games – because their only losses are on each other's home courts and at Oregon Tech – the tiebreaker for the No. 1 seed in the CCC tournament and an automatic bid to the national tournament would be determined by a coin flip.

The Mounties, who host OIT on Saturday night, kept themselves in contention by erasing a 39-36 halftime deficit and taking a five-point lead into the fourth quarter, shooting 10-of-16 with three 3-pointers in the third. Starters Maya Ah You (19 points, six rebounds) and Stormee Van Belle (17 points) were their high scorers, but a bench that totaled 33 points on 12-of-21 accuracy was the difference.

Among those reserves, Ashley Knight went 4-for-4 with 12 points and six boards, Payton Parrish drained three 3s and Darian Gasseling dished out eight assists.

For the Raiders, Sydney Mullings had 18 points and five rebounds, Tiani Bradford had 13 and six, and Casey Williams scored 11. However, EOU bogged down star forward Autumn Durand, whose five points on 2-of-10 shooting was her lowest output in 32 games going back to last season.

The Mounties went ahead for good when Van Belle scored six of their eight unanswered points that broke what had been a 49-all tie after a Bradford jumper with 4:21 left in the third. Leading 59-53, Parrish opened the fourth with a 3-pointer and SOU didn't get closer than nine points the rest of the way.

The Raiders had won the first meeting in Ashland, 77-68 on Jan. 14.

They play at 7:30 p.m. Mountain Time on Saturday at College of Idaho.
 
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