ASHLAND – The Southern Oregon University women's basketball team wasn't at its best shooting the ball Saturday night, but Warner Pacific was worse. Much worse.
The Knights needed a late flurry to salvage a 30.6-percent mark from the field as the 19-ranked Raiders cruised to a 76-63 Cascade Conference victory and a weekend sweep at Bob Riehm Arena with two big runs.
Freshman wing Autumn Durand led the Raiders (11-1 overall, 2-0 CCC) for the second straight night with 14 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two blocks. Carly Meister posted 10 points and eight boards, helping SOU bust the game open with offensive-rebound cutbacks on three straight possessions at the beginning of the second half to spur a 10-0 run.
"We didn't execute the way we did last night, but I'm happy with how we played overall this weekend," SOU head coach Lynn Kennedy said. "Our young players are getting much better. We just need to keep that intensity and be more consistent over 40 minutes."
SOU's lead was already as big as 20 toward the end of the first half, though. Warner Pacific shot 21.6 percent in the period (8-for-37), and although the Raiders weren't much better (9-for-27) in the frame, they made 19 of 24 free-throw attempts.
Allison Gida (13 points) and Kristen Schoenherr (11) also got into the scoring act.
Southern Oregon's win streak is up to seven.
The Raiders' lead was 21-17 with seven minutes left in the first half before a 15-0 run that took just four minutes to execute. Durand sparked it with a couple of buckets and Bree Park capped it with a deep 3-pointer – her first of two on the night.
SOU's advantage was as large as 29 points in the second half with just eight minutes left.
"In the end, we played about 30 minutes the way we should," Kennedy said. "We need to finish a little better but you have to give Warner Pacific credit, too. They played hard until the end and that's not easy to do after play at Oregon Tech last night."
Ali Campbell had 16 points and six rebounds for Warner Pacific (3-7, 0-2). Lacy Wood added 14 points and four rebounds and Janelle Weiss had 10 points.
Southern Oregon's 25 turnovers would have been an issue if not for Warner Pacific's 26.
The Raiders have now won seven of their last eight conference games dating back to last season. They'll be at Cal Maritime next on Dec. 14 before getting back to CCC play Dec. 20-21 at Eastern Oregon and College of Idaho.