No. 22 RAIDER WOMEN'S BASKETBALL (22-4, 18-2 CCC)
12 p.m. Friday – vs. Walla Walla (9-16, 6-14) | Live Stats
3 p.m. Saturday – vs. No. 6 Lewis-Clark State (23-2, 19-1) | Live Stats
TICKETS | LIVE STREAMS

ASHLAND – The stage is set for a memorable regular-season finish at Lithia Motors Pavilion. By stringing together a 12-game winning streak, the No. 22-ranked Southern Oregon women's basketball team has earned the right to play for a Cascade Conference title on its home floor.

The Raiders (22-4 overall, 18-2 CCC) begin the final weekend of conference play at noon Friday against ninth-place Walla Walla (Wash.) (9-16, 6-14), and with a win they'd clinch a top-two seed. They'd also guarantee that the title – or at least a share of it – is on the line when they welcome No. 6 Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) (23-2, 19-1) for Saturday's 3 p.m. showdown. LCSC, which is one game up on the Raiders but must first visit No. 25 Oregon Tech on Friday, is seeking its third straight title. SOU last won the regular-season championship in 2016-17.

PLAYOFF PICTURE: The Raiders will play at home when the eight-team CCC Championships presented by U.S. Bank begin with the quarterfinal round at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. A win against Walla Walla would guarantee a top-two seed and homecourt advantage through next Friday's 5:30 p.m. semifinals. Why? Because even if they finish the regular season tied with OIT (for the No. 2 seed) or LCSC (for the No. 1 seed), the Raiders hold tiebreakers over both based on their comparative head-to-head records against CCC teams starting at the bottom of the standings and working up. (To wit: LCSC lost to fifth-place Bushnell, OIT lost to fourth-place Eastern Oregon, and SOU hasn't lost to anyone outside of the top-three.) That means a share of the regular-season title would give the Raiders the No. 1 seed for the CCC Tournament and an automatic bid for the NAIA National Tournament.

BRIEFLY:

• The Raiders' active winning streak is their longest since they won 13 in a row in 2017-18, and last weekend they won an eighth consecutive CCC road game for the first time in team history. With a sweep this weekend, they'd match the longest CCC streak in team history (14), which was established in 2016-17 when they won a school-record 21 games in a row overall.
• An explanation of the streak begins with the fact that SOU has gone from being a below-average 3-point shooting team to one of the best in the country. In the 14 games that preceded it, the Raiders averaged 5.3 3-pointers per game on 29-percent accuracy. In the 12 wins since, they've averaged 10.3 makes on a 39-percent mark. Both of those numbers would currently rank top-four in the NAIA over a full season.
• The defense has remained a constant. The Raiders are allowing 52.2 points per game in CCC play – the lowest average any team in the circuit has posted in at least 15 years. They have the 12th-best defensive rating (76.6 points allowed/100 possession) out of 228 NAIA teams. Only two other CCC teams rank among the top-50: OIT (45th) and LCSC (49th). Only one of SOU's last eight opponents has scored 60 points.
• Kami Walk, a two-time All-American honorable mention recipient, plays her final regular season games this weekend needing 30 more points to take over the No. 3 spot on SOU's all-time scoring list. She stands at No. 4 in both points (1,553) and rebounds (850), No. 7 in blocked shots (89), No. 3 in free-throw makes (476) and No. 11 in 3-pointers (118). Having already cemented herself as one of the top players in team history, she is among the CCC's top-eight in both points (15.0) and rebounds (7.3) for the third year in a row. Walk is also shooting 89.6 percent at the line and has six different streaks of at least 10 free-throw makes in a row, her longest being 21.
• Meghan McIntyre ranks top-six during CCC play in points (16.3, 6th), assists (4.1, 3rd) and steals (2.3, 6th). Only OIT's Olivia Sprague can say the same, though she trails McIntyre in the latter two categories.
• Junior forward Clara Robbins needs 14 more blocked shots to reach SOU's career record with her total sitting at 124. She's posting 1.7 per game, leading the Raiders to the fifth-highest average (4.9) in the NAIA.
• Since entering the starting lineup 15 games ago, Sierra Scheppele is averaging 8.9 points and shooting 48 percent from 3 (38-of-79). Izzy Hernandez, also a midseason addition to the lineup, is averaging 9.9 points and shooting 47 percent from 3 (17-of-36) over her last nine outings.
• SOU is 10-1 at home with an average margin of victory of 20.4 points. In three seasons under Carlotta Kloppenburg-Pruitt, the Raiders are 36-4 inside Lithia Motors Pavilion.

ABOUT WALLA WALLA: The Wolves remain in the hunt for their first-ever CCC Tournament berth and have easily surpassed their highest win total since joining the conference in 2015. Chariah Daniels (14.6 ponits, 10.1 rebounds, 3.0 steals) and Jaliyah Casem (14.2 points) are their players to watch. They combined for 26 points in WWU's 74-52 loss to SOU on Jan. 13, when the Raiders were up 25 points by halftime. SOU is 16-0 in the all-time series.

ABOUT LEWIS-CLARK STATE: Just days after the Warriors blew out SOU 68-42 on Jan. 12 in Lewiston, they lost their all-star senior forward, Maddie Holm, to a season-ending injury. They haven't lost since, however, and bring a 15-game winning streak into the weekend. Their dynamic backcourt of two-time CCC Player of the Year Callie Stevens (16.9 points, 3.0 assists) and junior point guard Ellie Sander (13.4 points, 4.1 assists) has kept them afloat, leading the Warriors to the CCC's top percentages from the field (46.7) and from 3 (35.9). Their offensive rating (107.2 points/100 possessions) is the 14th-highest in the NAIA, and their zone defense is giving up just 58.8 points per game. Stevens scored 25 in the first matchup, which made LCSC 8-4 all-time against SOU.