NAIA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Sioux City, Iowa | Tyson Events Center
Thursday's Game (Round of 16)
1 p.m. PDT – (2) Southern Oregon vs. (6) Xavier (La.)
LIVE STREAM | LIVE STATS | BRACKET

Where to Watch: Fans can watch the tournament free of charge for the first time this year by registering an email address at NAIANetwork.com. Watch parties will also be held in Ashland at SOU's Rogue River Room and Oak Tree Northwest Bar & Grill.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Sixteen teams remain in the NAIA Women's Basketball National Championship. For the first time since the tournament took on its current form three years ago, Southern Oregon is one of them.

The Round of 16 gets started Thursday at the Tyson Events Center as the No. 2-seeded Raiders (33-0 overall) take on No. 6 seed Xavier (La.) (29-3) at 1 p.m. PDT. By the numbers, the matchup features two of the three best defensive units still standing. Both teams skated through their first- and second-round games, winning by average margins of 26 points.

IF THEY ADVANCE: The SOU-Xavier winner gets a day off while the Round of 16 runs through Friday. Whoever advances will play in the quarterfinals at 11 a.m. PDT Saturday against either the Cramer Quadrant's No. 1 seed, Bethel (Tenn.) (25-7), or the No. 4 seed, Hastings (Neb.) (25-7). The semifinals will be at 3 p.m. PDT Monday and the title game at 5 p.m. PDT Tuesday.

HOW THEY GOT HERE: The Raiders entered the tournament as the NAIA's only remaining unbeaten team and showed why last weekend in Ashland. They got through the first round for the fourth consecutive season with an 86-52 rout of No. 15 UC Merced, riding Morgan Baird's 28 points and a 21-0 advantage in transition offense. They stormed out to a 30-point first-half lead on their way to a 78-51 thumping of No. 7 seed Wayland Baptist (Texas) in the second round behind Emma Schmerbach's 17 points, eight rebounds, four steals and two blocks.

The Gold Nuggets also opened the tourney on their home court, starting with a 77-59 first-round win over No. 11 seed Southeastern (Fla.) before upsetting No. 3 seed William Carey (Miss.), 72-47, the next day. They held their opponents to 31% combined shooting on the weekend. Though they'd been among the final 16 in the NAIA Division I Tournament when the bracket was 32 teams deep, they'd previously been 0-9 in second-round games.

TOURNEY TRIVIA:

• This is the Raiders' 16^th all-time national postseason appearance. They've qualified four years in a row under Carlotta Kloppenburg-Pruitt, who took over the same season (2021-22) that the bracket went to 64 teams as the NAIA's two divisions merged.
• SOU isn't new to Sioux City. The Tyson Events Center was also home of the 32-team NAIA Division II National Tournament from 1998-2020, and the Raiders got there 11 times in that period. They made the team's deepest-ever run in 2016, advancing to the championship game, and were last there in 2020.
• Since the current tournament format was adopted, SOU is the second Cascade Conference team to reach the Round of 16. Lewis-Clark State became the first in 2023 but was stopped short of the quarterfinals.
• In the 64-team-bracket era, top-two seeds have occupied eight of 12 Fab Four spots. No team seeded lower than No. 6 has reached the semifinal round.
• The first and second rounds saw 13 of 16 host teams advance to the final site. Higher seeds went 38-10.
• The Mid-South Conference has five teams in the Round of 16, including the No. 1 seed in SOU's quadrant of the bracket, Bethel (Tenn.). The Great Plains Athletic Conference is represented by three teams and the Crossroads League by two. Defending champion Dordt (Iowa), one of those GPAC squads, is the No. 1 overall seed.

(2) SOUTHERN OREGON (33-0)
Ashland, Ore. | Cascade Conference (22-0, 1^st)
Head Coach: Carlotta Kloppenburg-Pruitt (4^th season, 114-19)
Final NAIA Top 25: No. 2
Off. Rating: 2^nd (110 pts./100 poss.) / Def. Rating: 5^th (75 pts./100 poss.) / Net Rating: 1^st (+35)
1^st Round: SOU 86, (15) UC Merced 52
2^nd Round: SOU 78, (7) Wayland Baptist (Texas) 51

• The Raiders' first two wins represented their second- and third-largest margins of victory ever in the national postseason. They turned up the pressure behind CCC Defensive Player of the Year Emma Schmerbach, who recorded 10 steals and three blocked shots on the weekend; three-time CCC Defensive Player of the Week Meghan McIntyre, who amassed eight steals; and SOU career blocks leader Clara Robbins, who added six more to a total that now stands at 185.
• With 28 points in the first round, CCC Player of the Year Morgan Baird matched Remi Mejia (2018) for SOU's highest total in a national tournament game this century. The forward is averaging 15.6 on 59% shooting this season and has gone for 20-plus on seven occasions.
• McIntyre, a two-time All-CCC point guard, is averaging 12.5 points, 5.5 assists and 3.0 steals in her tournament career over four games. In just two seasons at SOU, she has moved up to No. 14 on the team's career assists list.
• Only one opponent has hit the 70-point mark against the Raiders over the last two seasons. Including the CCC Tournament, they've given up an average of 48.4 in postseason play this year.
• All-CCC shooting guard Bridgette McIntyre (10.1 points) is 14-of-32 from 3-point range in postseason play. She ranks 14^th in the NAIA with 84 3-pointers and only one player ahead of her is shooting a higher percentage (44.4). As a team, SOU owns the highest 3-point percentage (38.7) of anyone left in the tournament.
• In her last eight games, backup point guard Keeley Wright totaled 18 assists and eight steals compared to just five turnovers.

(6) XAVIER (29-3)
New Orleans, La. | Red River Athletic Conference (22-2, 2^nd)
Head Coach: Bo Browder (26^th season, 590-237)
Final NAIA Top 25: No. 22
Off. Rating: 65^th (96 pts./100 poss.) / Def. Rating: 7^th (77 pts./100 poss.) / Net Rating: 25^th (+19)
1^st Round: Xavier 77, (11) Southeastern (Fla.) 59
2^nd Round: Xavier 72, (3) William Carey (Miss.) 47

• SOU assistant Gary Kloppenburg – a former WNBA and NBA coach, and the father of SOU head coach Carlotta Kloppenburg-Pruitt – gave Xavier's Bo Browder his start in the business. Browder, the Gold Nuggets' 26^th-year head coach, served as Kloppenburg's assistant for the Lassen C.C. (Calif.) men's team from 1993-95. His teams have led the NAIA in scoring defense three times, and his current squad is forcing nearly 21 turnovers per game.
• Browder hit the transfer jackpot prior to this season. All four of Xavier's all-conference selections are new to the team this year, including Joy Campbell (11.0 points, 5.6 assists, 3.4 steals), a point guard who came from Old Dominion at the NCAA Division I level. Shooting guard Kam Shelley (15.0 points), the RRAC Newcomer of the Year, and All-RRAC wing Lauren Banks (12.6 points) have moved in seamlessly alongside Campbell.
• The Gold Nuggets won 16 consecutive games from mid-November to mid-January. Their three losses were decided by 10 points combined.
• Shelley averaged a team-high 18.0 points in their first two tournament games.