Southern Oregon Wins 5th Consecutive Game
ASHLAND, Ore. -- After a lackluster first half, the SOU Raiders stormed back with a 20-0 run early in the second half and hung on for a hard fought 84-77 win over Evergreen State in Cascade Conference play. Chelsey Muri led SOU in scoring with a game high 29 points including 9-14 from the field and 10-12 from the charity stripe.
With their fifth consecutive win, the Raiders improved to 8-2 on the season, its best start since 2002-03, and 2-1 in league play. The Geoducks fell to 2-9 overall and 1-2 in league.
SOU Coach Lynn Kennedy said his team turned up the defensive pressure in the second half to spark the 20-0 run. "We talked about picking up our intensity on defense and getting into the lanes on offense. Evergreen played a physical game and caused some early problems for us, but we kept coming at them and it paid off in the end."
Jacki Speer contributed a double-double performance with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Emily Brookins added 10 points for the Raiders who shot 44% for the game.
Evergreen State was led by Jennifer Solberg who had 26 points and 11 rebounds. Kristi Auckland added 12 and Joy White and Molly Clark each contributed 10 points apiece. Kennedy said he knew Evergreen was going to play tough. "They are well-coached and they continued to play hard even after our second half run. Their posts played well tonight and they hit some timely 3's."
SOU will be back on the hardcourt tomorrow night (December 19) against Northwest University at 5:30pm.