Harding's career-high helps Raiders hold off Evergreen, 81-79
SOU Sports Information
ASHLAND – Dominique Harding's career-high 29 points were just enough for the Southern Oregon women's basketball team to thwart Evergreen (Wash.)'s upset bid, 81-79 in Cascade Conference play Friday night at Lithia Motors Pavilion.
After the Geoducks pulled even on Angela Sikora's 3-pointer with 2:22 remaining – erasing all of what had been a 20-point deficit in the second quarter – Harding got her last points on a second-chance bucket that put the Raiders back up for good, 79-77, on their ensuing possession.
Kami Walk split a pair of free throws with five seconds left to account for SOU's final tally before Jerri Maluyo's running 3-point attempt for the win bounced off the backboard from straight on as the buzzer sounded.
The Raiders bumped their record to 14-7 overall and 10-4 in the CCC, staying in a third-place tie with Corban going into Saturday's 5:30 p.m. matchup against Northwest (Wash.).
Harding, a sophomore guard, shot 11-of-17 with a 4-of-6 mark from 3 in eclipsing 25 points for the third time this season. She scored 17 in the second half, helping SOU hold on after holding a 49-34 advantage at the break.
Freshman post Kami Walk also played big with 16 points, scoring in double figures for the third time in four games while matching a season-high with nine rebounds. Syd'Nee Fryer had six points and eight boards and Daranda Hinkey became the 14th Raider ever to amass 250 assists in a career by distributing a team-high six.
Trinity Betoney, the conference's leading scorer, got the Geoducks back in the game by totaling 17 of her 20 points in the second half. Maluyo went for 13 points, 10 assists and three steals, and Sikora drilled five 3-pointers off the bench en route to 17 points.
The Raiders shot 45 percent from the field and hit 10 3-pointers. They went 16-of-28 with eight of those triples in the first half, taking their biggest lead wat 41-21 on a Walk layup six minutes into the second quarter.