Cavs Fall to SOU, Share CCC Championship
PORTLAND, Ore. –Needing a win to capture an outright Cascade Collegiate Conference Championship, the No. 8 Concordia women’s basketball team witnessed its 10-game winning streak end as No. 19 Southern Oregon upset the Cavaliers 76-72 in the regular season finale for both teams.
With the loss, Concordia (25-3, 18-2 CCC) will share the regular-season title with The College of Idaho (27-3, 18-2 CCC). Concordia won the fifth and final tiebreaker (a coin flip) to determine the No. 1 seed in the CCC Tournament and the automatic bid awarded to the regular season champion.
Concordia will host eighth-seed Northwest University (9-20, 7-13 CCC) at 7:30 p.m. inside the Cavalier Gymnasium on Tuesday, Feb. 24, while the Yotes will entertain the seventh-seeded Owls of Oregon Tech.
Southern Oregon finished the season as the No. 3 seed in the CCC tournament and will host Corban College in the first round.
After shooting just 34.3 percent from the floor in the first half, including 2-of-10 from three-point territory, Concordia trailed 45-28 entering intermission. Offensively, the Raiders tallied two separate 15-4 runs in the first period to gather the 17-point lead.
The Cavs came out of the locker rooms with a nine-point run, seven of which came via Rebecca Gimeno, to cut the deficit to 45-37 with 16:28 remaining. Concordia would use a second charge to trim the Raider lead to two with the score 47-45 and would eventually take a one-point lead by way of a Gimeno trey with just over seven minutes to go.
The lead would last a mere four seconds as SOU’s Rhiannon Dickison connected on a jumper the next time down the floor. The teams would square the contest at 68-68 with 2:54 left, but with the aid of six straight free throws, the Raiders would stave off the Cavs for the remaining moments.
The Raiders received 29 points from Jacki Speer and 22 from Dickison. Speer shot 7-of-14 from the floor but added to her total with a 15-of-19 performance from the free throw line. Speer also hoisted a game-high 11 rebounds.
Rebecca Gimeno led the Cavs with 17 points while Angela Gimeno added 15.
After shooting 44.8 percent in the first half, SOU was limited to 27.6 percent in the second half. The Raiders shot 36.2 percent overall in the game compared to 40.6 percent for CU. The Cavs finished with a narrow advantage on the boards with a 41-40 lead in rebounds. With 36 attempts from the free throw line, SOU got to the line twice as often as the CU.