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Raiders keep streak alive By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Kevin Wilson likes coaching the designated "team to beat," especially since that team happens to be unbeatable. Wilson's Southern Oregon University women's basketball team kept its stranglehold on that title again Thursday night with a 76-66 Cascade Conference victory over Oregon Tech that stretched SOU's league win streak to nine games. "We're the top team until someone knocks us off," Wilson said. "We're the defending champs until somebody dethrones us. Hey, I'm used to being the underdog all the time so it's kind of nice. It's kind of different. You have to take a bulls-eye on your back and everybody's gunning for you, so even the teams that have traditionally been in the bottom of the conference are now saying, 'That's the team to beat,' and they're playing tougher against us." Just not tough enough. Behind a defense that wouldn't quit, the Raiders ended the foul-plagued game on a 17-7 run to improve to 8-7 overall and 5-0 in league play. Oregon Tech, making its first appearance in McNeal Pavilion since resurrecting its women's hoops program from a 10-year hiatus, fell to 8-7 overall and 3-2 in the conference. A jumper by OIT's Meggan Sager tied the game at 59 with 6:25 to go, but Kara Magee-Arick's tip-in at the other end gave SOU the lead for good. Magee-Arick, one of four Raiders in double figures with 12 points and six rebounds, scored seven points in the game-clinching run and 10 points in the second half. The Raiders also got a game-high 17 points, five rebounds, four assists and five steals out of Adrienne Dolezal, and 13 points out of both Kelley Dexter and Sara Marks. After two Sager free throws got the Owls within 63-61, Magee-Arick drilled a 3 and a jumper followed by Dolezal's driving lay-up to put the Raiders up 70-62 (Katya Spiecker made a free throw in between) with 1:54 to go. Jennie Kooch scored OIT's first field goal in 4 1/2 minutes at the 1:41 mark to pull the Owls within six, but a free throw by Lindsey Hilaire, a steal by Ashley Nunley and three more free throws by Dexter sealed the deal. "Every night we're going to come out ready to play," Dolezal said, "I mean, I think we should take every game as a rival game. Every night, somebody's going to try to bump us off, so every night we're going to come out ready to play. "Everybody was fired up. You know, it was just everybody � We don't want them coming into our house thinking they're a new team and they're going to win in our house. That's not going to happen." In a game that saw 45 fouls called - 23 on OIT - it was SOU's scrambling defense that proved to be the difference. The Raiders picked up 27 steals, including nine by Marks, and churned 38 Owls' turnovers into 35 points at the other end. Marcie Mitzner scored 15 points off the bench to lead OIT and Meggan Sager, another bench player, added 14, but the Raiders held the Owls to 32 percent shooting in the second half which helped the home team overcome a 53-40 rebounding deficiency. Jaime Stanford, playing her first game against the Raiders since leaving the team midway through last year, was in foul trouble all night and finished with just five points and six rebounds in 19 minutes. The back-and-forth battle featured 15 ties and seven lead changes, and the final score represented SOU's largest lead. "They were one of the top teams in the conference and it's just a big win to beat a good team," Magee-Arick said. "We were slow at times but we really picked it up in the end and we played a good game." The Owls went on a 14-4 run early in the second half to turn a 38-33 deficit into a 47-42 lead, their largest of the game. SOU answered with a 13-2 spurt of their own sparked by a Dolezal jumper and a Marks 3-pointer, to go up 55-49 with 9:53 left. "Every game poses a different threat and a different problem," Wilson said, "and I just think team-wise, we were just fantastic tonight. Part of it is chemistry and most of it is, we just don't panic. We just have never panicked. Even if we're 20 down we don't think we're out of a game." Notes: SOU volleyball coach Paul Elliott and former SOU track star Tiwana Merritt were presented plaques at halftime - Elliott the 2002 Region 1 Coach of the Year award, and Merritt the 2002 Cascade Conference Female Athlete of the Year award. Said Elliott: "It's a great honor and it was very flattering to have it done out here in front of everyone. And I think having it done the same night as Tiwana Merritt too was a thrill for me because I'm a big fan of Tiwana Merritt's." � The Raiders finished with 20 assists to the Owls' 11. Besides Marks, Dexter added five assists and Dolezal four. � The next meeting between the teams will be Feb. 6 in Klamath Falls. Wrestling At Havre, Mont., The showdown between two top-5 ranked NAIA wrestling teams turned out to be more of a mismatch. Fifth-ranked Southern Oregon picked up just three individual wins as No. 2 Montana State-Northern coasted to a 27-13 victory on Thursday. Raiders' coach Mike Ritchey gambled by moving Brian Wilson, the sixth-rated wrestler at 165 pounds, up to 174 in hopes of pulling off the upset. Huntley came up short, however, dropping a 5-3 decision to Kyle Fisher. "We took a chance and it didn't work," Ritchey said. "It's the only way we had a chance of pulling the thing off." Added Ritchey, "We just need to crank it up a little bit. March is a long way off, but we found a few things we need to work on." 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 -