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SOU wallops western Baptist SALEM � Jaime Stanford and Tiwana Merritt combined to score 28 of Southern Oregon�s 34 second-half points as the Raiders held off Western Baptist, 65-51, in Cascade Conference women�s basketball. With the victory, Southern Oregon (15-13, 12-4) finished in sole possession of second place in the conference and earned a first-round bye in the conference tournament next week. Had the Raiders lost, they would have tied for second and been awarded the No. 4 seed in the league tourney. "This was a great win for us," said SOU coach Shirley Huyett. "Being No. 2 (instead of No. 4) is a huge difference." SOU�s defense stymied the Warrior offense, forcing Western Baptist into 27-percent shooting from the field. "We played great defense and just didn�t let them have very many good looks at the basket," said Huyett. Stanford finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds and scored nine of SOU�s first 11 points in the second half as the Raiders built a 14-point lead. Merritt, who finished with 19, tallied nine consecutive points as SOU pushed the margin to 53-38 with 7:35 remaining. The Warriors (16-12, 10-6 Cascade) got no closer than nine points the rest of the way as SOU continually connected from the free-throw line. "It was nice to see us step up to the line and nail some free throws tonight," said Huyett, whose team went 14-for-16 from the charity stripe. Merritt also added six rebounds and four steals, while Ali Richards had eight assists, Melissa Core had 11 points and Ashley Nunley came off the bench to score eight points. Western�s top scorers, Aubrey Dickson and Kylie Miller, combined for 20 points but shot just 7 for 35 from the floor. With the regular season complete, Southern Oregon will next take to the court Friday at 7:30 p.m. when the Raiders play host to the winner of Tuesday�s Concordia-Northwest College playoff between the No. 3 and 6 teams, respectively. SOUTHERN OREGON (15-13, 12-4) Core 4-4 2-2 11, Stanford 6-11 9-9 21, Petersen 0-2 0-0 0, Merritt, 7-16 3-4 19, Richards 3-10 0-1 6, Hilaire 0-4 0-0 0, Murphy 0-0 0-0 0, Magee-Arick 0-1 0-0 0, Tangedahl 0-0 0-0 0, Nunley 4-6 0-0 8, Wiley 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 24-54 14-16 65. WESTERN BAPTIST (16-12, 10-6) Dickson 3-20 2-2 8, Miller 4-15 4-6 12, A. Williams 0-2 2-4 2, E. Williams 3-7 0-0 9, Gallardo 3-4 4-4 11, Ward 0-3 3-4 3, Schmidgall 1-1 0-0 2, Matthews 1-2 0-0 2, Dickman 0-0 1-2 1, Lundgren 0-1 0-2 0, Villwock 0-0 1-2 1. Totals: 15-55 17-26 51. Halftime�Southern Oregon 31, Western Baptist 23. 3-Point goals�Southern Oregon 3-11 (Core 1-1, Merritt 2-5, Richards 0-1, Hilaire 0-4), Western Baptist 4-15 (Dickson 0-3, Miller 0-4, E. Williams 3-6, Gallardo 1-1, Ward 0-1). Rebounds�Southern Oregon 44 (Stanford 11), Western Baptist 33 (A. Williams 8). Assists�Southern Oregon 15 (Richards 8), Western Baptist 7 (Dickson 2). Personal fouls�Southern Oregon 16, Western Baptist 17. A�200. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.