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Big week ahead for SOU basketball By Rich Rosenthal For The Tidings The Southern Oregon University women's basketball team attempts to maintain its firm grasp on first place in the Cascade Conference title chase against a murderer's row of league opponents this week. The Raiders (8-7, 5-0) play three of last year's top conference finishers in a five-day span: Western Baptist (tonight at McNeal Pavilion), Albertson (Friday in Caldwell, Idaho) and defending regular season champion Eastern Oregon (Saturday in La Grande). Not only is Southern off to its best start ever in conference action, the Raiders have also won their past nine contests against league foes dating back to an 83-80 loss at Western Baptist on Feb. 15, 2001. Including that outcome, the Warriors (7-8, 3-2) have won three of the past four games that were decided by a grand total of 13 points. In addition to fueling hopes for a first-ever regular season loop crown, the Salem school is shooting to become the first team since Western Oregon in 1991 to win three straight games against SOU in Ashland. Regardless of what happens tonight, second-year head coach Kevin Wilson says Southern is merely holding serve when it wins at home and the season's biggest tests start Friday when SOU plays five of the next eight games on the road. *** After scoring a total of 10 points in nine November and December games, senior Adrienne Dolezal is emerging as a menace to Cascade Conference opponents both offensively and defensively. Including her career-high 17 against OIT, the senior guard/small forward from Coos Bay is averaging 10.7 points, 3.3 assists and 2.7 steals over the past three games. The nine-steal day against OIT allowed the "Princess of Pilfer," senior Sara Marks, to solidify her hold on the conference lead for steals (3.2), while SOU, the "Quintet of Theft," took over the team lead from EOU at 11.73 per contest. Southern is also the conference leader for free throw accuracy (.746). Marks and senior forward Kara Magee-Arick are seventh and eighth, respectively, in the league for scoring entering the week, while senior center Ashley Nunley is third for field goal shooting (.526). *** Western Baptist, the only conference team to win two straight over Southern Oregon at McNeal Pavilion in a decade, is showing signs of life after a 4-7 season start. Beginning with a 57-51 victory over Pacific Lutheran (which handed SOU two of its worst losses in recent years last month), WBC has won three of its past four outings since Dec. 30. The Warriors match up well against Southern's formidable guard line. Junior Amber Matthews (11.1), senior Tati Gallardo (9.2), senior Tara Schmidgall (8.3) and sophomore Lindsy Hinkle (8.1) - all guards - account for over half of the team's scoring output. The team's top inside player is 6-foot-2 junior Toran Lundgren who is 14th in the league for both scoring (12.0) and rebounding (6.2) but has averaged more in six career outings against SOU. SOU and WBC have met in the conference tournament each of the past four seasons with the Warriors earning their first-ever national berth with a 57-54 shocker in the 2001 finale. The Raiders returned the favor with an 86-85 come-from-behind thriller in Salem last season. On Friday, Southern hopes to snap a four-game slide against Albertson in Caldwell, where SOU shot just 21 percent and made only one 3-pointer in a 66-44 loss last season. Men's Basketball The Southern Oregon University Men's basketball team faces three key Cascade Conference contests this week, and each outcome will go a long way toward establishing order in the chaotic league chase for prime playoff seeding. Although undefeated Oregon Tech has been an immovable object atop the standings, only one game in the loss column separates the fifth-place Raiders (6-11, 2-3) from third-place Evergreen State and from ninth-place Albertson thus far. Southern, which is seeking the school's fifth conference playoff berth over the past six years, tangles with fourth-place Western Baptist (5-11, 3-2) tonight followed by a grueling weekend bus trip to Albertson (9-10, 2-4) and last-place Eastern Oregon (4-8, 1-5). Last Saturday's lopsided setback at OIT snapped SOU's season-long three-game win streak, but the Raiders enter the week operating with a four-game home skein. In fact, Brian McDermott's squad is 48-24 on its home floor dating back to 1997, but only two of the victories have come in the five visits by Western Baptist. *** Although Oregon Tech limited him to a season-low eight points, senior guard Zac Olson remains one of only five Cascade Conference players averaging over 20 points. The Albany native is fourth in the 10-team circuit with 343 points, a 20.2 average that is SOU's best since 1994-95, and he is only a total of 20 points off the game scoring pace of league leader Larry Smith of Eastern Oregon (21.4). A seven-point output by senior guard T.J. Caughell dropped the Reedsport product's season scoring clip to 14.9, which still ranks 13th in the league, but he remained sixth for assists (4.87), sixth for free throw accuracy (.820) and 10th for steals (1.8). SOU has been outscored by an 84.4 to 76.1 margin this season, but the Raiders have limited foes to 38-percent shooting and are on the positive side of a 76.3-to-70.0 clip in the current four-game home win streak. Because former coach Tim Collins recruited All-American forward Drew Langstraat and all-star guard Ryan Roberts to his new gig at California Baptist over the summer, Western Baptist is a shadow of its 2002 Cascade Conference tournament championship self. Although off to the school's slowest hoops record since 1993-94, the Warriors are very much in playoff contention thanks in part to the arrival of former South Medford High hoops hero Eric Fiegi. The 6-foot-9, 240-pound reigning Southern Oregon Conference MVP is off to a monster start to his collegiate career, and he is No. 2 in the loop stats for scoring (20.9), rebounding (8.3) and blocked shots (1.5). A day after dropping a 96-66 decision at Evergreen, the Warriors exploded for 61 first-half points en route to a 104-56 dismantling of Northwest last Saturday. Fiegi scored 14, but the WBC reserves, headed by a career-best 24-point performance by sophomore forward Ben Morris (who went 9-for-9 overall and made all six 3-pointers), were a combined 19 of 22 from the field for 49 points. Fiegi and senior guard Marty Reid (20.0) account for over half the team's season 80 point scoring average, and the duo combined for 30 in an 82-74 win over SOU in the conference Tip-Off Tournament Nov. 23 after the Raiders opened the game with a 15-2 run. SOU faces a daunting weekend task: the Raiders have never swept the annual Eastern Oregon-Albertson road trip in the 10-year history of the Cascade Conference but have gone 0-2 four times. Prior to a 103-101 double-overtime buzzer beater in the conference tournament semifinals last February, Southern was 2-16 all-time in Caldwell, and the Raiders are 34-47 at the Mountaineer home venue. 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 -