4 p.m. Thursday – Carroll (Mont.) at SOU – Live Stream | Live Stats

ASHLAND – The Southern Oregon University women's basketball team made a seamless transition to the Carlotta Kloppenburg-Pruitt era in 2021-22, sliding into the first-year head coach's system to remain a wins-producing machine. The Raiders' challenge in her second season is to move on without a few of the cornerstone players who made it so.

The follow-up act to a 29-win campaign that culminated in a Cascade Conference Tournament championship and the program's 13th NAIA National Tournament appearance begins this week. The Raiders will feature one of the top high-low tandems in the region, comprising all-stars Kami Walk and Brianna Phiakhamngon, and a high-pressure style that they executed to the tune of the fourth-best defensive rating out of 237 teams nationally. They'll also have to replace a trio of three-year starters, hoping individual development and a few newcomers can help cover the holes.

"It's a completely different team, and even though we have a lot of piece back, they're still working into new roles," Kloppenburg-Pruitt said. "We got a glimpse of what we can do so I think our focus level is a little different, and we're ahead of where we were last year at this point when everything was new to everyone. But we're going to need some people to step up and it's just about continuing to get better every day."

PRESEASON POLLS: The two teams at the top of the CCC preseason coaches' poll, defending regular-season champion Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) and perennial contender Eastern Oregon, were also the ones with the most year-over-year roster stability, bringing back four starters apiece. SOU was third in the poll and collected one first-place vote (LCSC received six and EOU five). A year ago, the Raiders shrugged off a fifth-place preseason standing to finishing second in the CCC. The NAIA Top 25 preseason poll will be released on Wednesday.

FIRST UP: The Raiders debut at 4 p.m. Thursday inside Lithia Motors Pavilion – marking their first October home game since 2015 – against Carroll (Mont.), which last year appeared in the NAIA National Tournament for the fourth time in five seasons and advanced to the Round of 16. It'll be the first of five non-conference games the Raiders play before opening their 22-game CCC schedule at College of Idaho on Dec. 2. They won't be home again until Dec. 16.

LAST SEASON: At 29-6, the Raiders matched the second-highest win total in team history, finished second in the CCC standings at 18-4, and were a perfect 15-0 at home. They were one of the most accomplished defensive teams in the country at just 53.5 points allowed per game, ranking fourth nationally in defensive rating (74 points allowed per 100 possessions), 18th in turnovers forced (21/game) and 18th in steals (12.5/game). That style translated to postseason, where they finished off a raucous run through the CCC Tournament with a 56-34 upset at then-No. 19 LCSC – holding the Warriors to their lowest point total in over 20 years to capture the title. They went on to defeat Georgetown (Ky.) in the NAIA Round of 64 before getting knocked out in the Round of 32 by No. 7 The Master's (Calif.), the site host.

POSITION BY POSITION:
POINT GUARDS: Brianna Phiakhamngon, a 5-foot-3 senior, will be asked to do a little bit of everything as the instigator of SOU's offense. The Central Washington transfer averaged 10.3 points and 2.4 assists per game in her first season on the floor for the Raiders, and she was at her best in the postseason while averaging 13.6 points with 10 3-pointers over five outings. She received All-CCC honorable mention, finishing 10th on the conference leaderboard in 3-point makes (49) and eighth in CCC 3-point percentage (35.6).

"I think she's more confident this year, knows the system and is going to be more comfortable in her position," Kloppenburg-Pruitt said. "We're going to need her to be even more aggressive."

Junior Yasmine Ahllamara has earned back-up duties. After transferring from Ventura College (Calif.), last year she came on as a reserve in 17 games and totaled 31 points over 91 minutes.

GUARDS: With two recent staples of the lineup, Dominique Harding and Kenadee Honaker, graduated and gone, the door is open for two key reserves to step into bigger roles: seniors Kalei Iwami and Danasia Allison. Iwami has up to this point been a sharpshooter off the bench, draining 113 3-pointers and contributing 7.3 points per game in 79 career games, often from the point guard position. Allison is a sparkplug and one of the CCC's top on-ball defenders, ranking 13th in the circuit last year at 1.3 steals per game. She's collected 116 in her career.

"Kalei is such a hard worker and we're going to need her to score and make a lot of plays for us, but she's ready for it," Kloppenburg-Pruitt said. "Danasia is just our stopper – she's going to defend the best guard every night and hassle people – and she's worked a lot on improving her ball-handling and finishing at the basket."

Sophomore Makayla Scurlock will get a chance to be a rotation regular after appearing in 10 games last year, and freshman Camille Feary will debut after redshirting last year. Junior Izzy Hernandez, another returner who got into half of last year's games, can play the three and four spots. The Raiders are also counting on the versatile skillset of South Medford product Emma Schmerbach, a long and highly-capable defender who logged 8.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game as a freshman last year at Linfield.

FORWARDS: Kami Walk's breakout season was pivotal for the Raiders in 2021-22, and she was rewarded with All-CCC and honorable mention NAIA All-America plaudits. If the 5-11 junior demanded the most attention from opposing defenses before, she'll get even more now. Walk averaged 15.7 points, 8.4 rebounds and a block per game, made defenses stretch with 22 3-pointers, earned more trips to the free-throw line than anyone in the conference with her aggressive play inside, registered more double-doubles (11) than any Raider in 12 years, and did it all efficiently. She is, quite plainly, the key to SOU's success on both ends of the floor.

"She can just do it all for us," Kloppenburg-Pruitt said. "And she keeps improving. I think she's going to be better from the perimeter and putting the ball on the floor, which makes her a really tough matchup."

Walk's former frontcourt mate, two-time all-conference team member Syd'Nee Fryer, graduated. Her replacement in the starting lineup, 5-11 sophomore Clara Robbins, showed promise as the first post off the bench with averages of 4.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, one block and a 44-percent mark from the field as a freshman. Another sophomore, Mia Wilmot, will see increased minutes after establishing herself as a deft mid-range shooter in 31 appearances last year. Freshman Shakia Teague-Perry is coming off a redshirt season.

Two of SOU's newcomers could also be part of the frontcourt rotation. Mallory Williams, a 6-foot junior, was a reliable scorer at Centralia College (Wash.), where she averaged 8.9 points on 50-percent shooting from the field and 37-percent accuracy from 3. Eliza DiGiulio, a 5-11 freshman, had a standout prep career at Ida B. Wells-Barnett High.