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Raiders to kickoff rivalry with OIT Thursday By Rich Rosenthal For The Tidings The Southern Oregon University women's basketball team has not had a true rival in three years since Western Oregon departed the Cascade Conference for NCAA Div. II status. But that changes in a big way Thursday night when Oregon Tech makes its first visit to McNeal Pavilion since the Klamath Falls school resurrected its women's hoops program after a 10-year hiatus. Fittingly, much is at stake for both squads. The 26th-ranked Raiders (7-7, 4-0) will attempt to extend their league win streak to nine consecutive dating back to last season and seek to remain in a first-place tie with Albertson atop the conference standings. Meanwhile, the third-place Owls (8-6, 3-1) would solidify a place among the loop's elite with a key road win over the defending conference tournament champions. "It's an important game," SOU head coach Kevin Wilson said, "but all the games are important, especially at home. We have to protect our home court to be successful in this conference." Adding to the game's intrigue will be the return of former Raider forward Jaime Stanford, who ranks second in the league in scoring since transferring to Tech last spring. After a difficult preseason, the Raiders are starting to find their groove. Leading that charge has been Kara Magee-Arick and Sara Marks. Magee-Arick, a 6-2 senior forward, keyed SOU's weekend victories over Cascade and Warner Pacific, and the Portland product moved into a tie with Marks for the team's season scoring lead at 14.9. For the second time this season and for the third time in her career, Magee-Arick nailed five 3-pointers in a game in the Warner Pacific fray, and her 25-point outburst was only one shy of her career-best. Her 24-point, 10-rebound weekend went along with an 8-for-15 clip from beyond the arc and moved the Lincoln High grad into fourth place in the conference for 3-point accuracy (.373) and seventh in scoring. She also moved into fifth place on the SOU all-time list for 3-point makes (97), three shy of current assistant coach Nicole (Whitney) Chamberlin for fourth. "Kara Magee-Arick is taking it to the next level," Wilson said. Moderately overshadowed by Magee-Arick last weekend but not overlooked was Marks, who averaged 16 points, seven assists, six rebounds and four steals. Her 11-game streak of scoring 11 or more points was snapped when the T-Birds limited the Hunter, Utah product to eight, but Marks still raised her season averages over the weekend and is in the top-seven in four loop stat categories: free throw efficiency (2nd, .815), assists (3rd, 4.3); steals (4th, 2.79) and scoring (7th, 14.9). Under the guidance of SOU graduate Tom Loney, Oregon Tech appears headed for a winning record in the school's first season of intercollegiate action since the 1990-91 campaign despite having a four-game win streak and a 3-0 start in conference play halted by a 69-62 home setback against Cascade last Saturday. Tech is the only team in the league to feature four players with double-digit scoring averages: Stanford (16.7); junior 6-foot-3 center Pam Frei (11.3); junior guard Katya Speiker (11.1) and junior guard Meggan Sager (10.2). The athletic, six-foot Stanford averaged 10.5 points and seven rebounds through 17 games and was second in the league in field goal percentage as an SOU junior captain before leaving the team for personal reasons last January. Since resurfacing at OIT, she leads the loop for shooting (.580) and already boasts five 20-point outings, including a career-high 26 in a November loss to Trinity Western. The teams share six common opponents this season with SOU posting a 5-1 mark, while OIT is 3-3. SOU had won four straight and owned a narrow 18-17 edge in the all-time series between the charter Cascade Conference members when budget cuts forced the elimination of the sport at the Klamath Falls institution prior to the 1991-92 campaign. 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 -