ASHLAND, Ore.—Down at the half, Southern Oregon University used a dominating third quarter to defeat Western Oregon, 77-67, in non-conference women's basketball action on Tuesday night.
With the win Southern Oregon, ranked No. 13 in NAIA DII, improved to 9-1 on the season while Western Oregon fell to 5-3 overall. The Wolves will return to action and to GNAC play with road games at Central Washington (Dec. 19).
The Wolves opened the game with an 11-2 run with Tai Thomas and
Sydney Azorr providing the early scoring. WOU continued to double-up the Raiders through the end of the first with a 23-11 lead.
SOU closed to 37-30 at the halftime break and carried its energy over into the third quarter, outscoring the Wolves 27-13 in the period to take its first lead since the opening minute.
WOU stayed to within seven points (59-52) on Azorr free throws at the 8:43 mark in the fourth, but the Raiders went on to open up a double-digit lead by holding WOU without a field goal for a six-minute stretch. The Wolves lone points came via the free throw line over that span.
"It's obviously never a good feeling dropping two on the road but I thought we had much better energy and fixed some key things tonight," WOU head coach Howard-Carpenter said. "We moved the ball well and got on the offensive glass to give ourselves extra opportunities."
The SOU duo of Toria Bradford and Remi Mejia provided the heavy lifting with 53 of the Raiders' 77 points. Bradford went 10-of-16 from the field and 7-of-9 from the free throw line for a game high 28 points."
Savannah Heugly led WOU with 15 points while
Kennedy Corrigan scored 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Corrigan helped guide the Wolves to the early lead with 12 of her points occurring in the first half after connecting on 4-of-8 shots from 3-point range.
"Kennedy and Tai gave us a great spark tonight, they stepped up and knocked down shots to get us an early lead," Howard-Carpenter said. "Now with our non-conference schedule done we'll take the next few days to focus on us and get prepared for the GNAC."
Hitting 9-of-9 from the free throw line, Azorr ended the night with 12 points while Thomas finished with 10 points and five reboundS.
