ASHLAND – Southern Oregon has shown no qualms lately about winning ugly. An aesthetically pleasing Cascade Conference record was enough after the No. 25-ranked Raiders' fourth consecutive victory, 66-55 over Multnomah on Saturday at Lithia Motors Pavilion.
Kami Walk (16 points, 12 rebounds) and
Clara Robbins (10 points, 10 rebounds) both turned in double-doubles, making them the first Raider pair to do so in the same game this season, as SOU improved to 17-5 overall and 13-3 in the CCC.
The Raiders survived again despite shooting a paltry 30-percent from the field; they never got over 36 during their five-game homestand. The result was another nerve-racking finish, but Robbins' free-throw-line jumper at the 5:20-mark of the fourth – their first field goal of the quarter – put them up six, and Walk's back-to-back buckets, including a 3-pointer, with around two minutes left stretched the lead to 10.
Their defense arrived again, managing Dalila Rincan's 23-point night for the Lions (5-17, 3-13). MU shot just 31 percent as a team, becoming the fifth SOU opponent this year to connect on fewer than one-third of its attempts, and committed 19 turnovers.
Camille Feary chipped in some much-needed offense off the bench with a career-high 11 points. She converted all six of her attempts at the free-throw line, where SOU shot 22-of-32 as a team.
The Raiders have 19 consecutive games in which they've attempted 18 or more free throws dating back to last season.
Walk's double-double was her third in four games and fifth of the season. Robbins' marked her second, and the sophomore has now reached double figures in rebounds six times during conference play.
The Raiders are back on the road next week, visiting Northwest (Wash.) on Friday and Evergreen (Wash.) on Saturday. They remain in third place with six regular-season games to go – two back of Eastern Oregon and Lewis-Clark State (Idaho), which are now tied in first, and one up on Bushnell.