LEWISTON, Idaho – A seeming inevitability became fact on Saturday night: No. 3-ranked Southern Oregon, in the midst of the most dominant run in team history, is a Cascade Conference regular season champion once again.

The Raiders completed their title defense in familiar fashion, defeating Lewis-Clark State 61-52 at the P1FCU Activity Center to stay perfect at 25-0 overall and 19-0 in the CCC. Including a couple of tournament victories, it was the fourth time SOU has clinched a championship with a win against the Warriors (21-5, 15-5) in the last four seasons.

Two seniors came up big – point guard Meghan McIntyre with 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting, four assists and four rebounds, and wing Emma Schmerbach with 17 points on 9-of-12 shooting, nine rebounds, and some suffocating defense on LC State's All-CCC guard.

SOU went into halftime up 10 after outscoring the Warriors 16-7 in the second quarter, but that lead was down to three when Sitara Byrd scored inside with 4:22 remaining. The Raiders didn't give up a point the rest of the way, shutting down the Warriors on their last seven possessions and forcing turnovers on three of those.

"This is an extremely hard place to win and we knew that coming in," SOU coach Carlotta Kloppenburg-Pruitt said. "Our team was really locked into the game plan, on the defensive end especially. We talk about how toughness travels and we showed that today. I'm really proud of the effort and energy they brought this weekend."

The win gave the Raiders at least a share of the title – their seventh all-time and fourth in the last decade – with three regular season games left to play. Their first chance to claim it outright is 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in Ashland against the team right behind them in the standings, No. 22 Oregon Tech.

McIntyre, whose point total was a season-high, got the Raiders out in front by knocking down nine of her first 10 attempts from the field, including a pair of 3-pointers. Schmerbach started hot, too, but her biggest contribution was holding Ellie Sander – who set a Lithia Motors Pavilion record with 36 points in the teams' first matchup – to four points on 2-of-8 shooting with four turnovers.

Payton Hymas picked up the slack in the backcourt for LC State with 15 points and nine assists. She also coughed up the ball four times, though, and SOU turned the miscues by her and Sander into a 21-7 edge in points off turnovers.

Clara Robbins affected the game defensively with five rebounds, three steals and two blocks. Eliza DiGiulio scored six points off the bench, and Makayla Scurlock came on to collect six rebounds.

The Raiders have won back-to-back championships for the second time in program history. The first was in 2015-16 and 2016-17.

Dating back to last season, they've won 22 consecutive road games and 33 CCC contests in a row.