Photo by Bob Palermini, www.palermini.com
Southern Oregon University Athletics
Lithia Motors Pavilion was a game-filled weekend for the Raider’s basketball teams. The Raider basketball program swept the court with four wins. The women’s team won against the Northwest Eagles and the Evergreen Geoducks. The win against Evergreen was the women’s team’s 11th straight home-game win. Currently, the women’s team is ranked third in the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) with Eastern Oregon and Lewis-Clark State above them. The men’s team also put on a showcase as they took two wins home against the Eagles and Evergreen. Similar to the women’s team, the men’s team is ranked third in conference with the College of Idaho and Oregon Tech above them.
Women’s
Friday night started off with the women’s basketball team matching up against Northwest University. It was an intense game through all four quarters as the Eagles and the Raiders went neck and neck for the lead. Two-player standouts against the Eagles were Kami Walk and Dominique Harding, a senior guard for the Raiders. Walk was a magnet for fouls against the Eagles while Harding was the one who broke up the plays against the Eagles and left them off balance. Walk and Harding were also two of the top scorers for the night. Walk’s highlight was her 11 completed free throws, which sounded out a perfect swish of the net. Harding had seven completed field goals, giving her 14 points on the scoreboard. Two other players that showed some fight and worked hard to keep the ball out of the opponent’s hand were Brianna Phiakhamngon and Danasia Allison. Phiakamngon had 14 points for the night, whereas Allison had six. However, Allison had some solid fight in the third quarter as she sunk a mid-air field goal. As much as the Eagles put up the fight with their several lead changes, intentional timeouts in the fourth, and aggressive performances, it was the Raiders that came out on top with a final score of 60 – 58.
Saturday afternoon the women Raiders were back on the court against Evergreen. The Raiders started off with a solid lead in the first three minutes of the game to put up six points on the board. They lead the first quarter, but by the end of the second Evergreen had put up eight points and was ahead 24-18. After the half, the Raiders came back with an attack plan. They put up 20 points in the third quarter while Evergreen only put up 14. The Raiders solidified their win in the fourth when they scored 11 more points. Harding contributed to that score with 14 points, with Allison having scored eight and Walk with seven. The Raiders ended the night against Evergreen with a final score of 49-46.
Men’s
Following the heated match between the Northwest Eagles and the women’s team, the men’s team turned up the heat. They started off the game with a three-pointer from Tez Allen. They quickly added six more points and didn’t stop. In the first half, Allen scored fifteen points. Following right behind him in points was Atmar Mundu, a junior guard from Fremont, CA., who scored eight points. Most of Mundu’s points were from two solid three’s. The Eagles, towards the end of the first half, switched the favor their way, but they couldn’t hold it as Mundu completed his second three. Going into halftime, the men’s team had only a three-point lead above the Eagles. Josh Meyer helped continue the lead as he went 5-9 on his field goals and scored 11 points in the second half. Allen and Mundu both scored seven points as well. The Raiders finished the game with a strong 63-59 finish.
Late Saturday evening, the men’s team started off their match against Evergreen. The first half had six back n’ forth lead changes. However, the Raiders failed to execute in the first half and had six turnovers, which helped solidify Evergreen’s lead as the Raiders went into halftime. Evergreen had a five-point lead going into the half. The score was 44-49. Coming out of halftime, the Raiders changed up their mental game. They nearly increased their field goal percentage by 20% and scored 57 points. The top scorers of the second half were Mundu (17), Meyer (10), Joe Juhala (10), and K’wan Carter (9). The men’s team ended the game with nearly 96 points and nearly broke triple digits on the scoreboard. The final score of the night was 96-84. The win against Evergreen was the men’s team’s fifth straight home game win.
The men’s and women’s teams have only seven regular-season games left before the post-season begins. The hope is for both programs, which are ranked third, to clinch their spot for the conference tournament.
The next home games will be on February 11th and 12th. The Raiders will host Warner Pacific and Multnomah University.
For updated links and information about conference standing, you can follow these links:
