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SOU ready to get down to business The Raiders open with Concordia (Neb.) at the NAIA tournament tonight By TIM PYLE Mail Tribune Sioux City, Iowa, isn't exactly a vacationer's dream. After five days in Sioux City's wintry conditions, the Southern Oregon women's basketball team is eager to begin tackling the business at hand tonight, when it meets Concordia (Neb.) in the first round of the NAIA Division II national tournament. "We've done just about everything you can do in Sioux City," said Raiders first-year head coach Kevin Wilson, whose team has been practicing once a day since arriving Saturday night - amid a blizzard - in anticipation of tonight's clash with the No. 9-ranked Bulldogs, starting at 9:15 p.m. local time or 7:15 by Pacific clocks. SOU (19-10), which won the Cascade Conference tournament after tying for second in the regular-season standings, seeks its 14th win in 16 outings. The Raiders are 13-2 since Jan. 10 but were unseeded in the 32-team tournament. Concordia (27-5), which received one of three at-large bids after losing in its conference title game, is the No. 9 seed. "I'm disappointed in the draw we got," Wilson said. "There are three or four teams in our conference that could play with anybody here." Wilson compares Concordia to the Portland-based Concordia school that the Raiders defeated twice in regular-season Cascade action. "They're steady, steady, steady," Wilson said of his first-round opponent, which hails from Seward, Neb. "They have very good shooters." The Bulldogs average 79.5 points per game and are fifth in the NAIA for rebound margin (+9.4). SOU averages 77.2 points per game, including 83.1 during its 13-2 stretch. But Wilson said the team's differ in styles of play. "They're more of a steady pace," Wilson said. "We like to get out and run." While the Raiders will continue to rely on all-Cascade junior point guard Sara Marks (the team's leading scorer at 17.4 per outing), Wilson said the production of junior post Kara Magee-Arick and senior forward Melissa Core could be instrumental. "Even though they're not unknowns, they could step it up and really give us a boost," said Wilson, whose team gets an average of 10.7 points per game off the bench from Magee-Arick and 9.3 from Core, a starter. The winner of tonight's game advances to a meeting against the Briar Cliff (Iowa)-Shawnee State (Ohio) victor at 7:15 p.m. Pacific time on Friday night. "(The Raiders) are pretty confident," Wilson said. "That's one thing this team doesn't lack. ... There's not a team here we can't beat if we play our game and if we play together." Reach reporter Tim Pyle at 776-4483 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.