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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us February 7, 2005 Raider women drop crucial home tilt to WP By Erik Hidle Tidings Correspondent The Southern Oregon University women's basketball team fell 63-57 to a defensively unyielding Warner Pacific squad on Saturday, ending Southern's 16-year home win-streak against the conference rival and putting the playoffs even further from the Raider's grasp. SOU GUARD Kristin Mazzei slashes to the basket Saturday. Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings The Raiders entered this weekend's home stand at McNeal Pavilion with a do-or-die mindset. Stuck in a four-way tie for the final playoff spot in the Cascade Conference, the time to win was now. After a decisive win over Cascade on Friday, the pavilion seemed like friendly confines for a team that had just played some of its best basketball of the season. Southern started off the game strong and displayed much of the same team ball play that it had the night before. Accurate passing helped the Raiders jump out to an early 10-point lead and excellent defensive positioning flustered the Knights' offense into missing nine of its first ten shots. SOU also forced turnovers, which led to fast-break scoring opportunities. The early lead would not hold, however, as WPC found the holes in the Raiders' zone defense, making four 3-point shots and continuously finding open players in the post. At half, the Knights pulled ahead of Southern by four, leading 33-29. In the second half the Knights put up a defensive wall that helped secure the lead through the remainder of the game. Warner Pacific forced 29 SOU turnovers and drew 21 fouls. Southern shaved the WPC lead to one in the final two minutes, but couldn't finish. The Knights scored on consecutive possessions and put the game under glass. The Raiders boasted a 45-percent shooting clip, but only attempted 49 shots compared to the Knights' 66 attempts from the floor. The game was decided primarily from the charity stripe and SOU came up on the short end of the referee's whistle. "The bottom line is that this was a hard fought game," SOU head coach Kevin Wilson said. "In the end, they just played better then us." Wilson blamed the loss primarily on a lack of defense and the inability to control the ball effectively. "A win would have helped," he said. "The thing is, we still have three more games and we aren't truly in the cellar yet." The loss dropped the Raiders into a three-way tie for eight place in the league standings. Only the top eight teams qualify for the Cascade Conference playoffs. SOU's playoff prospects appear slim, however, since its next three games are scheduled against some of the best teams in the conference. Southern will play at Albertson, at 28th-ranked Eastern Oregon and then make its final home appearance of the year against 25th-ranked Oregon Tech. "Things can still change," Wilson said. "It's three games and I know that we can win three games, we are just going to take them one at a time and see how the rest of the league plays out." Northwest and Warner Pacific are currently tied with Southern in the standings and Cascade is barely ahead of the rest with just one extra win. "I have a player who told me that as long as there is still time left on the clock, you can still win the game," Wilson said. "That's a pretty good motto for this team. These girls have really grown and come together and they know that we still have some time left on the clock in this season." The Raiders will continue their dogfight for the final playoff spot in Idaho this Friday against Albertson College. Erik Hidle is a correspondent for the Ashland Daily Tidings. To comment on this article, contact Sports Editor Joe Zavala at 482-3456 ext. 3020 or [email protected] DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's & Men's Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weightloss Products Memory Foam Mattress afsa studentloans home equity loans teleconferencing W2 Forms fasa student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts African Safari Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation wholesale diamonds Currancy Exchange web conferencing Online Casinos Community Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams