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Raider-Owl showdown is next By Rich Rosenthal For The Tidings Despite posting a perfect 10-0 record in the month of January and becoming the first Cascade Conference basketball team ever to win its first 12 league games, the Southern Oregon University women will be embroiled in a prickly first-place showdown Thursday night when the 19th-ranked Raiders tangle with archrival Oregon Tech in Klamath Falls. While the Raiders (15-8, 12-1) assembled the school's second-longest win streak ever (that was snapped last Saturday at Cascade), the Owls (16-7, 11-2) are off to an astonishingly successful start in the program's first season of intercollegiate action since 1990-91. In fact, the Tech women are now the hottest team in the 10-team league and have not lost in eight contests since a 76-66 setback to SOU at McNeal Pavilion on Jan. 9. Although Southern Oregon's fast start secured a 13th consecutive winning season and a playoff spot for the 14th straight year, the regular season conference championship and automatic NAIA Div. II tournament berth that seemed to be a foregone conclusion only last week is not tagged and bagged just yet. A Thursday loss creates a first-place tie with the Owls with four regular season contests remaining, while a victory provides SOU a commanding two-game edge and a head-to-head season sweep tiebreaker over the Klamath rival. Regardless of the outcome, both schools have emerged as favorites to capture the league's two national tournament berths and will likely have home-court advantage through at least the semifinal round in the upcoming eight-team conference championship tournament. *** Thursday's Southern Oregon-Oregon Tech matchup is a Cascade Conference all-star game of sorts between teams with contrasting offensive styles. Should SOU win the league title, seniors Sara Marks and Kara Magee-Arick are solid candidates for MVP status. Marks, a 5-6 point guard, is third in the loop in scoring (16.1 overall, 17.8 in conference play) and is second for assists (5.04) and steals (3.09) and fourth in free throw efficiency (.790). The versatile Magee-Arick, who ranks fourth all-time at the Ashland school for 3-point makes (112), is fifth in the circuit for scoring (15.3), second for 3-pointers (2.26 per game), ninth for blocks (.8) and 13th for rebounds (6.7). Meanwhile, senior center Ashley Nunley, the league's 12th-best rebounder and fourth most accurate shooter (.503), is averaging 16.3 points, 11.3 rebounds and nearly two blocks over the past three games. The up-tempo Raiders have outscored their conference rivals by a 80-65 margin, while the deliberate, half-court oriented Techsters are tops for scoring defense (56.0) and rebounding margin (plus-11.5). Ironically, OIT's key cog is a former Raider. Senior forward Jaime Stanford, who played two years and the first 17 games of last season in an SOU uniform, is having a career year. She is a league-best .563 from the floor, is fourth in the league for scoring (15.5) and is 11th for rebounding (7.0). Another big-time Owl flapper is 6-3 junior center Pam Frei, who is averaging 12 points, 8.5 rebounds and two swats per outing. Southern's 76-66 win over OIT in the first meeting between the schools was a dead heat until the final five minutes, and the difference was the cadre of Raider guards who converted 38 Owl turnovers into 35 points. Senior Adrienne Dolezal led all players with 17 points, while Marks finished with 13 points, nine steals and six rebounds. Men's Basketball Few of the 190 previous men's basketball encounters between archrivals Southern Oregon University and Oregon Institute of Technology have been packed with as much intrigue as Saturday night's Cascade Conference clash at McNeal Pavilion. The homestanding Raiders (7-18, 3-10) are in the midst of a five-game slide and are in a fight for the eighth and final league playoff spot. Despite playing hard and well in the second half of several recent losses, SOU enters the week a game behind eighth-place Northwest for the final conference tournament berth. Meanwhile, OIT's nine-week perch atop the NAIA Div. II rankings has been overshadowed in recent days by the quest of 32nd-year Owl head coach Dan Miles for his 700th career coaching victory. But Miles is stuck on No. 699 after the first-place Owls (22-3, 10-3) went 0-3 last week, and the Medford native and former SOU basketball, football and baseball star known as the Little General has a chance to earn the milestone against his alma mater. No team knows Owl tendencies better than SOU, which has already lost three times to the Techsters this season and is 0-4 at home since Jan. 14. Although Raider players and coaches alike believe they are overdue for a complete performance, the Owls, who are clinging to a one-game lead in what was once a first-place stranglehold, have blitzed Southern by an 85-64 average margin in the previous season encounters. *** Southern Oregon senior point guard T.J. Caughell has settled in among the Cascade Conference stat leaders and is well on his way to being the school's first two-time NAIA All-America Scholar-Athlete. The Reedsport product is second on the squad and 14th in the conference for scoring (14.3), and he also is one of only a handful players to rank among loop leaders in five other categories: assists (4th, 4.96), free throw percentage (6th, .821), steals (13th, .148), 3-point accuracy (14th, .378) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.63). Caughell, who has led the team in scoring three times this season and netted a career-high of 35 in an overtime victory over Simpson, maintains a 3.77 grade point average as a Health Promotion and Physical Education major. In addition to the NAIA honor, Caughell is a candidate for Verizon Academic All-America kudos. *** The Cascade Conference regular season title chase went from a one-team to a six-team race after previously undefeated and top-ranked Oregon Tech lost to Western Baptist (101-96), Cascade (84-67) and Warner Pacific (69-67) last week. The Owls won their first 22 games but have now lost three straight for only the second time since 1996. Despite the trouble in Hooter paradise, Tech still boasts perhaps its best and certainly most balanced team ever. The star-studded OIT cast features junior all-star center Alassane Bakayoko, who ranks 15th in the loop for scoring (14.0) and 10th for rebounds (6.7), and junior Todd Matthews, the NAIA's second-best point guard based on assist average (8.4). The top Owl scorer, junior Kevin Baker, however, has been the Raider-killer. The 6-6 forward from Boardman is averaging 17.7 points against SOU this year. nearly four points over his season average that ranks 12th in the circuit. Head man Dan Miles, who ranks 21st on college basketball's all-time coaching victory list, has beaten Southern Oregon 83 of 107 meetings since 1972, but he is just 2-6 at McNeal Pavilion since 1998. The former Medford High standout who still holds a national pass efficiency record set as a Raider All-American quarterback in the mid-1960s, beat SOU 66-60 February of last year for No. 675 and passed Ralph Miller as the winningest hoops coach in Northwest history. 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