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--> --> SOU title hopes on the line tonight By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings The Cascade Collegiate Conference is preparing for its grand finale and tonight, Southern Oregon University fans will get a front row seat. With just over a week left in the regular season the top four CCC teams square off tonight, with conference leading and 13th-ranked Eastern Oregon (18-2 overall, 11-1 CCC) visiting SOU (13-9, 9-3) and Albertson (16-8, 9-3) traveling to Western Baptist (21-8, 11-2). If both SOU and Albertson are victorious, the four schools will head into the final eight days separated by a single game. The significance of nabbing a high seed for the conference playoffs can't be overstated. The top two teams will get a quarterfinal bye and a home game in the semifinals, while the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds host dangerous quarterfinal games against the No. 6 and No. 5 seeds, respectively. A win over Eastern Oregon would put the Raiders in position to grab the coveted No. 1 seed, while a loss would kill their league title hopes and leave them just half a game ahead of fifth-place Concordia. "It's obviously a big game," SOU coach Kevin Wilson said. "We played them to a six-point game at their place and shot horribly, so I think we're evenly matched. Obviously, they have a leg up because they're with one loss, but I think it's going to be a good game. It's going to be up and down the court." The Mountaineers, winners of four straight, already boast an 11-win improvement over last year's entire victory output and are within striking distance of their first-ever league championship. The Raiders also play Albertson at home this week, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. SOU, in the midst of a five-game winning streak including three in a row at home, will be out to avenge an 88-82 loss to the Mountaineers back on Jan. 5. Back then, the Raiders were struggling - the EOU loss was their third straight defeat and fourth in their last five games. Now, despite losing one of their statistical leaders for personal reasons, the Raiders are playing their best ball of the season. SOU junior forward Jaime Stanford decided to leave the team following a 73-67 loss to Western Baptist back on Jan. 17. The 6-footer from Haines, Ala. was averaging 10.5 points (second on the team) and seven rebounds (first) at the time of her departure. The Raiders had a team meeting after Stanford left and decided to take the "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" approach. Apparently it's worked because they haven't lost since. "They've rallied together and played like a team," said Wilson, who declined to say why Stanford left. Stanford could not be reached for comment. Wilson said the whole team has stepped up since the loss, but Amy Tangedahl and Kara Magee-Arick in particular. Tangedahl, a 6-foot forward out of Missoula, Mont., has been in double figures in both points and rebounds twice since Stanford left, including a 17-point, 14-rebound effort against Concordia on Jan. 25 and a 10-point, 14-rebound game against Evergreen State on Jan. 31. Magee-Arick, a 6-2 forward from Lincoln High School, has scored 17 points or more four times over that same stretch, including a career-high 26 points against Evergreen State on 9-for-16 shooting. "We're passing the ball really well and everyone on our team is just trying to get it to the open person and whoever's open is shooting," Magee-Arick said. "It's just happened to be me a couple of games but I think our passing has been what has really been helping." The Raiders are averaging 16.95 assists per game, second only to EOU's 17.65. In the last game between the two teams, Eastern Oregon used a late rally to edge SOU at La Grande. History will favor the Raiders tonight, however, because EOU hasn't won at McNeal Pavilion since January 1989, a span of 12 consecutive visits. The Raiders said the loss at Eastern Oregon was a direct result of cold shooting on their part, and the statistics support that theory. SOU shot 37 percent, including 8-for-34 from the 3-point line, while the Mountaineers hit 43 percent. "We didn't hit anything hardly from the outside and we just weren't really playing like ourselves that day," Magee-Arick said. EOU's Brooke Sellards also had something to do with it. Sellards scored 34 points on 12-for-22 shooting against the Raiders, while also pulling down nine boards. The Raiders were led by Sara Marks' 20 points and Stanford's 16 points and 11 boards, but Marks and Stanford were the only Raiders to shoot above 35 percent. Against the conference's second best scoring team in conference games (the Raiders are No. 1 in that category), Tangedahl said defense would also be key. "We are a high-scoring team, but we need to focus on our defense as well because they are also a high-scoring team," she said. "So we need to keep them under and keep our scoring up." Wilson likes his team's chances, especially if they keep improving. "We're playing as a team, you never know who's going to get the points for us," Wilson said. "So, we're just a totally different team, and much better." Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing