Women's Basketball Preview: CCC Opens up Conference Play
LA GRANDE, Ore. – With the preseason coming to an end, the road to declaring a new Cascade Collegiate Conference women’s basketball champion begins as teams start conference play on Friday, Dec. 5.
Southern Oregon and Eastern Oregon represent the CCC teams that received preseason votes into the NAIA Top 25. The Raiders ranked No. 21 while the Mountaineers landed at No. 25. After the first Top 25 Poll release, Southern Oregon jumped to No. 13, Oregon Tech moved into the poll at No. 25 while Eastern Oregon received votes but fell out of the rankings.
The Raiders, who were chosen as the preseason favorite to win the CCC title, have started strong with a perfect 7-0 record and hold the highest scoring offense averaging 88 points per game. SOU is led by senior forward Alexi Smith who is averaging 13.6 points a game.
Eastern Oregon (6-3) and College of Idaho (1-8) were picked to finish the season in second and third, respectively, and were the only teams other than Southern Oregon to receive first place votes in the CCC preseason poll.
The Evergreen State College is the only other undefeated team winning its first four games at home. Evergreen was voted to finish the season in eighth place but currently has three of the league’s top five scorers in junior forward Sadee Jones (14.8 points per game), senior forward Brittany Gray (16.3) and junior guard LaNiecia Weatherspoon who’s averaging 18.8 points per game, a conference high.
Oregon Tech, picked to finish fourth in the conference, will head into the regular season having played more games than any other team in the conference and features the highest ranked defense holding its opponents to 45.3 points per game. At 10-1, the Owls are led by junior guard Karly LeVeque (11.8) and junior forward Tess Armstrong (11.6).
Finishing off the conference preseason poll are Corban (4-5) at fifth, Concordia (5-1) at sixth, Northwest (5-2) at seventh, Warner Pacific (5-5) at ninth and Northwest Christian (4-3) at tenth.
Concordia will host Southern Oregon in its first CCC contest. Senior guard Janae Klarich has helped the Cavaliers to their quick start leading the conference in assists averaging 5.8 per game.
Corban will travel to Eugene, Ore., to face off against Northwest Christian while College of Idaho tries to turn around its 1-8 start as host to Northwest.
Warner Pacific starts conference play hosting Oregon Tech as Evergreen looks to keep a perfect record while on the road at Eastern Oregon.
A men’s basketball preview will be released on Friday as well.