Raiders shoot past Warner Pac to CCC semis

2/20/2018 11:24:00 PM

SOU Sports Information

ASHLAND – Already the Cascade Conference's top team in terms of turnovers forced and offensive rebounding, Southern Oregon has been unbeatable when able to mix in a dimension of shooting proficiency.

Unfortunately for Warner Pacific, that was the case in Tuesday night's quarterfinal round of the CCC Tournament at Mountain Avenue Gym. The second-seeded and 11th-ranked Raiders eliminated the seventh-seeded Knights, 99-80, and tied a season-high with 13 3-pointers on a season-best clip of 46 percent from downtown.

Senior guard Remi Mejia dropped in 26 points and four steals, junior forward Ariel Augustine had 22 points and 10 rebounds, and the pair combined for nine of those triples.

The Raiders (26-3 overall) are through to the semifinal round for the sixth year in a row. At 8:30 p.m. Friday they'll host No. 17 Northwest Christian, which defeated sixth-seeded Corban, 63-59, in overtime Tuesday.

The Knights, who won back-to-back road games over the weekend to qualify for the postseason, wrapped up at 12-19.

Led by 16 points apiece from Darbi Pink and Maryah Tipping, they started fast, shooting 9-of-16 in the first quarter and holding a four-point lead a minute into the second. That is, however, the point at which they unraveled: SOU rattled off a 24-4 run, getting eight points from Mejia and two 3-pointers from Daranda Hinkey while forcing 13 turnovers in the period.

The Raiders took a 48-34 lead into halftime and extended it to 21 points by the end of the third.

Mejia finished 10-of-19 from the field and 4-of-10 from 3, and Augustine went 8-of-12 with 5-of-7 marksmanship outside. The double-double was Augustine's second in a row and her third of the season.

Toria Bradford stuffed the box score with nine points, seven assists and four steals, Hinkey added nine points and Nitteayah Barfield pulled down four offensive rebounds. The Raiders held a 20-5 advantage on the offensive glass and forced 24 turnovers in all.

The Knights shot 50 percent from the field (27-of-54) – becoming just the second team to do so against SOU this year – and 20-of-23 at the free-throw line, but got 18 fewer field-goal attempts than the Raiders. Emily Peters contributed 11 points and six boards.