PREVIEW: NCU and SOU Will Battle for CCC Women’s Basketball Tournament Title, Presented By U.S. Bank
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Both teams have already secured a spot in the NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball National Championship Tournament, but top-seeded Northwest Christian University and third-seeded Southern Oregon University will battle it out tonight for a Cascade Collegiate Conference Women’s Basketball Championship, presented by U.S. Bank.
NCU – the regular-season winner – received one of the Cascade Conference's two automatic qualifying bids to the NAIA Women's Division II National Championship, March 6-12, in Sioux City, Iowa. The CCC tournament champion receives the other automatic bid, but if the regular-season and tournament champion are the same, then the tournament runner-up will receive the second bid, therefore sending SOU regardless to the NAIA tournament.
The Beacons host the championship match after defeating fifth-seeded Corban University 76-51 in the semifinals. NCU reached the championship game for the first time after its defense had a stellar night, holding Corban to the lowest point total against a conference school this season. Freshman guard Kaylen Kamelamela scored a career-high 25 points on 10-for-13 shooting and 5-for-8 from three to go along with her team-high four assists. Junior guard Morgan McKinney scored 11 points, three rebounds, and three assists.
SOU punched its tickets to the CCC Tournament title game and the NAIA DII National Tournament by knocking off 25th-ranked EOU, 76-69, in the semifinal round, despite facing a 10-point deficit going into the fourth quarter. The Raiders lost the first regular-season meeting against the Mountaineers by 23 points, and the next by 22. They hadn’t won in La Grande since 2014 and were down 59-49, but executed a 15-2 run to start the fourth, where sophomore guard Dominique Harding scored 10 of her 14 points.
Tonight marks the third time these two teams face each other this year, with each team grabbing wins on their home courts. SOU took the first contest by two points, 76-74, while the Beacons won the second by a much larger margin, 84-60, despite only scoring six points in the fourth quarter.
The game will be streamed on the CCC Portal and will have live stats, which can be found on the
Tournament Central page.