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Raiders add to trophy case By Chris Miller Ashland Daily Tidings Two down, one to go. The 21st-ranked Southern Oregon University women's basketball team followed up its regular season Cascade Conference crown with a 77-61 CCC tournament championship win over Western Baptist Monday night at McNeal Pavilion. The only title left to win: The NAIA Div. II championship. "Well, were going to give it our best shot," Raider head coach Kevin Wilson said about the possibility of a three-way championship season. "We're the best team in the conference from one to 12, period. And we proved it every night." "Hey, we've come this far and I think if we go and put out as much effort as we did the last two games we could go far," senior point guard Sara Marks added. Kelley Dexter blocks the shot of Western Baptists' Tati Gallardo in the CCC title game Tuesday night. Chris Miller/ASHLAND DAILY TIDINGS The Raiders (22-9) avenged their last loss of the season against the Warriors back on Feb. 21 in Salem. Western Baptist rained 3-pointers down on SOU, taking an 83-72 win. At the start of Tuesday's contest, it was raining again. Western jumped out to a 10-2 lead on the long-range shooting of Tara Schmidgall. Schmidgall finished the game hitting four treys for 14 points, all in the first half. But a change in the Raider defensive scheme ended the Warriors' run. "We made a defensive mistake by starting out in a zone against them," Wilson admitted. "But we changed back to man-to-man and we shut them down from there." And they did it without Marks. Marks picked up her third personal foul with 14:29 left in the first half with the Raiders down 21-19 and was relegated to spectator for the remainder of the half. After Marks exited the game, the Raiders went on an 8-3 run, capped by a Kelley Dexter 3-pointer to take a 28-24 lead with 11:12 left. "After Sara went out, we didn't lose anything," Wilson said. "It shows that we're a good team. If we're not a good team with only one personality, then we're in trouble." Dexter hit 2 of 4 from behind the arc and made all her free throws to finish with 10 points, three assists, a blocked shot, but had five turnovers. "We were turnover happy tonight, but we pulled it out," Dexter said. "We knew we could come together as a team and win." A good running game and hot shooting put the Raiders up by a comfortable 10-point margin going into the break at 41-31. But just like the stock market in the 1920s, the lead came crashing down. As in the start of the game, Western was nailing its 3's, while the Raiders were giving the ball up. The Warriors' Lindsey Hinkle hit three 3's, and added one steal and a layup in the first four minutes to help cut the Raider lead to 50-44. Marks picked up her fourth foul with 13:41 left with the Raiders clinging to a 54-48 lead. Lindsey Hilaire committed the 17th of the Raiders 25 turnovers, as Western fought back to within four. Then the wheels looked like they may come off. With only 9:48 left to play, Western's Tati Gallardo drove down the right side of the court. Marks took a good defensive position to cut Gallardo's drive off - and it looked like her feet were set when Gallardo came crashing into her. But the official didn't see it that way. As Marks was called for her fifth and final foul the crowd went ballistic. Even Rogue Valley Television commentator Joe Brett couldn't believe the call, as he nearly jumped out of his skin throwing his arms around in protest. "That's pretty tough when you get calls like that, but there's nothing you can really do," Marks said. "I have confidence in my team and that's what this team is all about." Western put fear into the hearts of the 850 partisans with 9:04 left by cutting the lead to 57-54 off an Erin Plotts driving layup. But down the stretch, clutch baskets and solid free-throw shooting allowed the Raiders to cut down the net for the second time this season. Hilaire scored nine of her 12 points, hitting on 7 of 8 from the line, in the final 5:34 to help ice the game. She also had five assists and two steals. "We hit fouls shots tonight and we haven't done that in the past," Wilson said. "We just put a real complete game together." The NAIA fracas begins March 12 at the Sioux City, Iowa, Auditorium, where SOU will make its fifth national tourney appearance since 1997. First-round pairings will be released Wednesday afternoon. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -