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--> --> Dec. 19: Western ruins Wilson's debut By Bobby Heiken Ashland Daily Tidings First-year Southern Oregon University head women's basketball coach Kevin Wilson got an up-close and personal view of the heated rivalry between SOU and Western Oregon University Tuesday night as his Raiders fell 64-54 in a non-conference clash at McNeal Pavilion. "I don't think I really knew how much this game meant," Wilson said. "It was pretty intense. You could tell in the veteran players just how big of a game this is. This is a big-time game." The Raiders (5-5) finally made an appearance on the McNeal Pavilion hardwood after starting the Wilson era with nine straight road games. And for the first half the Raiders appeared to enjoy the surroundings. Despite committing 19 turnovers, SOU held Western (7-2) to an 8-for-39 shooting effort in the first half and led 27-22 at halftime thanks to some impressive play by reserves Kara Magee-Arick, Kelly Dexter, Amy Tangedahl and Heidi Beers. "Our bench really came out and gave us a lift," Wilson said. "We got after it pretty good defensively and played really hard in the first half." Things continued to go SOU's way to start the second half. Junior Jaime Stanford was on the receiving end of a pair of assists from junior point guard Sara Marks to put the Raiders up 31-25. But slowly the game slipped away from the Raiders as the Wolves heated up from the outside. WOU forward Shannon Copple hit back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the game at 31. The senior came through again with another 3-pointer with 13:30 left to push the lead to 38-35. The Raiders had one more run left in them as Marks nailed a jumper off a steal to cut the lead to one, and then Tangedahl buried a 3-pointer from the corner with the shot clock running out to give SOU a 40-38 advantage. Western post Mandi Dinan put back an offensive rebound to tie the game at 40. The two teams traded the lead with SOU jumping ahead at 44-43 on an Ashley Nunley follow shot and at 48-46 on a jumper by Magee-Arick with 7:29 to play. But another Western 3-pointer off an SOU turnover - this one by junior Erica Matthews - shut the door on the Raiders for good. Former Eagle Point High all-star Becky Gregory hit six straight free throws down the stretch to ice the game for Western. "We were really tentative," Wilson said. "It's a mystery to me why we do that. We couldn't get into our offense and we were making some silly turnovers. "Mentally I think we were already home for the holidays." SOU finished the game with 30 turnovers, which WOU turned into 31 points. SOU also struggled from the free throw line only hitting on 6 of 14 chances. "We played hard in the first half and they played hard in the second half," Wilson said. "We can't really expect to win after committing that many turnovers and missing all of those foul shots." Nunley led the Raiders with 11 points and nine rebounds. Tangedahl added nine points, while Magee-Arick came away with a game-high 12 boards. Copple led Western with a game-high 20 points and four 3-pointers. Gregory added 15 points. Despite the setback Wilson was still happy with his Raiders who go into the week-long Christmas break with a .500 record and a 2-0 Cascade Conference mark despite the long road trip. "The past week's been pretty emotional," Wilson said. "The loss to Pacific Lutheran (Dec. 12) was emotional and then the girls played their hearts out to beat Northwest (Dec. 14) and Evergreen (Dec. 15). It was a lot to ask them to get up for one more day." The Raidersl return to action Dec. 28 when they host their own tournament. Humboldt State and Holy Names will play the early game starting at 5:30 p.m., followed by Puget Sound and SOU in the nightcap at 7:30. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing