5:30 p.m. Friday – Bushnell at SOU | Live Stats
3 p.m. Saturday – Corban at SOU | Live Stats
Live Streams | Tickets

ASHLAND – Nearing the halfway point of the Cascade Conference women's basketball schedule, there remains a crowd of contenders with the top-six teams all separated by two wins.

Southern Oregon is one of them and will host two of the others this weekend. The No. 23-ranked Raiders (10-3 overall, 6-1 CCC), part of a three-way tie in second place, are back at Lithia Motors Pavilion to match up with Bushnell (9-3, 6-1) at 5:30 p.m. Friday and Corban (8-5, 5-2) at 3 p.m. Saturday. The games mark the start of a pivotal month in which the Raiders play seven of their nine games at home, and they come into them having won five consecutive CCC contests.

LAST WEEK IN REVIEW: Following a 10-day holiday break, the Raiders picked up in Portland with back-to-back road victories – 62-43 at Multnomah and 68-54 at Warner Pacific. Mid-game runs were the stories both nights: After staking to a 30-25 lead at Multnomah, they came out of halftime with a 13-2 surge; and trailing 20-19 in the second quarter at WPU, they outscored the Knights 22-5 into the break. Brianna Phiakhamngon had 14 points and Danasia Allison collected a career-high eight steals against the Lions, while Kami Walk totaled a season-high 21 points while adding six assists and six rebounds against the Knights.

NAIA TOP 25: The first NAIA coaches' poll in four weeks is set for release on Jan. 11, and a new poll will come out every two weeks for the rest of the season after that. Since coming in at No. 23 in the latest rankings on Dec. 14, the Raiders have gone 4-1, dropping only a non-conference game to William Jessup (Calif.). The CCC's other representatives have also fared well: No. 10 Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) stands at 12-1 with an active 12-game winning streak and took sole possession of first place with a 71-69 home win over Eastern Oregon. The No. 20 Mountaineers, standing at 11-2, haven't lost otherwise during the poll period.

BRIEFLY:

• SOU shot 12-of-23 from 3-point range in the win at Warner Pacific, marking the first time the Raiders have made 12 or more triples on better than 50-percent accuracy since February 2020. They've been trending upward in that facet of the game for a month, shooting 50-of-133 (37.6%) from 3 over their last six games after going 34-of-125 (27.2%) in the preceding seven. When making seven or more 3-pointers, the Raiders have won nine games in a row and 19 of their last 20 dating back to 2019. In conference play, they rank second in both 3-point percentage (37.1) and makes per game (7.6). The Raiders are the only team with three players who rank top-12 in CCC 3-point percentage – Brianna Phiakhamngon (57.1), Kalei Iwami (37.0) and Kami Walk (37.0), their highest-volume outside shooters.
• Danasia Allison's eight steals at Multnomah marked not only a career-high, but the highest single-game total for any Raider since 2014. Allison is up to 139 career steals and is averaging the sixth-most per game (2.1) in the conference. She ranked 13th in that category (1.7) last season.
• Clara Robbins has been busy on the boards, collecting 38 rebounds over SOU's last four game – a stretch in which she went for career-high totals in back-to-back outings with 10 and 14. Among all CCC players, she's 18th in rebounds per game (6.3) and fourth in blocked shots (1.6).
• Elsewhere on the CCC leaderboard, Phiakhamngon is second in scoring at 18.4 points per game in conference play; if she maintains that average, it'd be the highest for a Raider since Melissa Sweat posted 18.6 in 2012-13. Kami Walk is 14th in points (12.7) and 11th in rebounds (7.0).
• SOU's home winning streak ended at 19 games against William Jessup, but it was the longest since the Raiders established a program record with 27 in a row from 2015-17. They've still won 13 straight home conference games. Over the last eight season, they've run the table at home in CCC play four times.

ABOUT BUSHNELL: After winning conference titles in 2019-20 and 20-21 (the latter with a COVID-shortened schedule), the Beacons finished fourth last season and are a threat again despite losing the services of CCC Player of the Year Morgan McKinney. All three of their losses have come against Top 25 squads. They feature one of the best backcourts in the league with juniors Bella Pedrojetti (14.1 points, 35-of-82 3FG), a South Medford alum, and Aspen Slifka (11.0 points, 5.1 rebounds), who are part of a starting lineup that has been the same in all 12 games. SOU swept the 2021-22 season series and is 26-6 overall against the Beacons with 12 consecutive home wins.

ABOUT CORBAN: The Warriors have already exceeded their CCC win total from last season, when they went 4-18 and finished in 11th place. The addition of junior guard Maddie Godwin – who leads the team at 11.5 points per game – is one reason why, and a defense that is holding opponents to 36-percent shooting from the field and 25 percent from 3 is another. They've won six of their last seven entering the weekend. They're 29-45 all-time against the Raiders, who won both matchups last season by an average of 22.5 points.