RAIDER WOMEN'S BASKETBALL (10-4, 5-1 CCC)
Jan. 9-10 | Ashland, Ore. (Lithia Motors Pavilion) | Tickets
5:30 p.m. Friday – vs. College of Idaho (10-4, 4-2) | Stream | Live Stats
3 p.m. Saturday – vs. Eastern Oregon (14-0, 6-0) | Stream | Live Stats

ASHLAND – The Southern Oregon women's basketball team's two-year Cascade Conference winning streak is over, but a seemingly wide-open championship race is just getting started. The next five days inside Lithia Motors Pavilion should go a long way in deciding it.

Standing at 10-4 overall and 5-1 in the CCC, the Raiders will see nothing but contenders during their upcoming three-game homestand. They host the team right behind them, College of Idaho (10-4, 4-2), at 5:30 p.m. Friday; the team right in front of them, first-place Eastern Oregon (14-0, 6-0), at 3 p.m. Saturday; and the team they're tied with in second place, No. 20-ranked Oregon Tech (9-5, 5-1), at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. In addition to the quality of opponents, the stretch is particularly key because SOU will play eight of its 11 remaining conference games on the road when it ends.

FREE STREAMING: SOU is offering free live streams of all home events as part of a CCC-wide move to the Urban Edge Network. Fans can watch on the web at UrbanEdgeNetwork.net or download the Urban Edge Network app to watch on mobile devices and Smart TVs.

LAST WEEK IN REVIEW: The Raiders took their first conference loss since Jan. 12, 2024, last Friday at Lewis-Clark State (Idaho), falling 62-47 in the teams' first meeting since last year's CCC Tournament championship game. A season-high turnover total of 28 weighed them down and made LCSC's 30-9 start too much to overcome. They split the road trip by cruising 82-47 at Walla Walla (Wash.) the next day, getting five 3-pointers and 22 points from Bridgette McIntyre. Freshman wing Millie Day shot 5-of-8 off the bench to add season-highs of 13 points and six rebounds.

NAIA TOP 25: The first new NAIA coaches' poll since Dec. 17 will be released next Wednesday after the homestand concludes. In the last one, the CCC was represented by No. 15 LC State, No. 18 Corban (which went on to lose at SOU) and No. 20 Oregon Tech. The Raiders (No. 30 overall) and Eastern Oregon (No. 35) received votes.

BRIEFLY:

• SOU's 40-game conference winning streak was the second-longest in CCC history behind EOU's 48-game record established from 2017-19. During the stretch, the Raiders defeated opponents by an average of 21.6 points and notched back-to-back regular season and tournament titles. One streak remains intact: SOU has won 23 consecutive conference home games. Including the CCC Tournament, that number is at 29.
• Senior forward Eliza DiGiulio scored a career-high 26 points in SOU's last home outing against Bushnell. The reigning CCC Sixth Woman of the Year is putting up career-best averages of 12.4 points (6th in the CCC) and 4.5 rebounds.
• Bridgette McIntyre continues to lead the Raiders and ranks ninth in CCC at 13.6 points per game. Last week's performance at WWU marked her third with 20-plus points and sixth with 18 or more. She has hit six more 3-pointers (42) than anyone in the circuit.
• Freshman Lydia Traore is the CCC's only player among the top-five in both steals (2.2) and blocked shots (1.7).
• SOU's defensive rating of 75.3 (points allowed per 100 possessions) ranks 22nd in the NAIA and first in the conference. The Raiders' points-allowed average of 56.1 is 17th on the national leaderboard; their last 11 visitors have scored fewer than 60 points in Ashland.
• Head coach Carlotta Kloppenburg-Pruitt's record is 125-24 in five seasons at SOU. Last week she became the fastest coach in program history to hit the 125-win mark. Her teams are 64-5 at home.
• The Raiders are 8-0 when they shoot at least 33% from the field. In their four losses, they've hit at 30% combined.

ABOUT COLLEGE OF IDAHO: The Yotes brought their top-five scorers back from last year's team that went 18-13, finished fifth in the CCC and advanced to the NAIA Tournament's Round of 32. Third-year coach Kyle Erickson has a balanced roster behind All-CCC honorable mention recipients Kylie Waltermeyer (11.9 points, 49% FG, 5.5 rebounds) and Brooke Beresford (10.0 points, 6.3 rebounds), and the Yotes' only conference losses were in overtime against LC State and by six points against EOU. They've dropped eight in a row against SOU and last won in Ashland during the 2018-19 season. The Raiders are 45-29 in the all-time series.

ABOUT EASTERN OREGON: Following back-to-back fourth-place finishes, the Mountaineers have returned to top form under 26th-year coach Anji Weissenfluh, winner of 12 regular-season titles, and are one of five unbeaten teams left in the NAIA. They returned four starters from a team that made the NAIA Tournament for the fourth year in a row – among them All-CCC senior guard Kelsie Siegner (13.9 points, 8.5 rebounds), who is the CCC's sixth-leading scorer at 13.9 points per game and averaged 16.5 last year against SOU. Their 50% mark from the field in CCC play is the best in the league, and they're holding opponents to a paltry 23% overall from the 3-point line. SOU has won five straight matchups and trails the series 52-50.