BOX SCORE

SALEM, Ore. – After building a nine-point half time cushion, Corban's women's basketball team held on in the end despite a furious comeback by Southern Oregon to defeat the visiting Raiders, 67-64, Friday night inside the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center.

With the victory, Corban improves to 9-15 overall and 4-8 in Cascade Collegiate Conference play. Meanwhile, Southern Oregon falls to 15-8 overall and 4-8 in league play.

Freshman Tess Bennett (Sutherlin, Ore.) led a quartet of Warriors in double figures with 16 points on 6-for-9 shooting from the field to go along with a team-leading 11 rebounds. Sopohomore Katie Steigleman (Eugene, Ore.), senior Monique Tribble (Coquille, Ore.), and junior Jennesa Miller (Mica, Wash.) added 15, 13, and 12 points respectively, while the aforementioned trio aided Bennett on the boards with 8, 7, and 7 rebounds respectively.

In the opening half, both teams battled back and forth until the score was knotted at 11-11 with 10:55 remaining following a free throw by Southern Oregon's Molly Doran. Over the next seven-plus minutes, Corban used a 20-5 run en route to grabbing a 15-point lead (31-16) thanks to a jumper in the paint by Bennett with 3:40 left. The host Warriors would extend their lead to as much as 16 points (38-22) before settling for an 11-point half time advantage (38-27) after a lay-in by SOU's Lindsey Scheffler for the final points of the opening twenty minutes.

Corban would continue to hold a double-digit lead over the opening 10-plus minutes of the second half before Southern Oregon began to cut into the Warriors' advantage. With an eight-point lead (60-52) with 5:27 left after a pair of Bennett free throws, Southern Oregon used a 10-3 run to pull within one point (63-62) following two Jacki Speer free throws with 99 seconds left in the game. Clinging to a three-point lead (65-62) with 27 ticks on the clock, Corban was awarded a pair of free throws by Tribble. Unfortunately for the Warriors, Tribble missed both shots at the charity stripe but Miller would grab a crucial offensive rebound before getting fouled with 23 seconds to go. After connecting on her first free throw, Miller missed the second but once again grabbed the offensive board and returned to the line with 19 ticks left. Following a 1-for-2 performance at the free throw line by Miller, Corban held a five-point lead (67-62) with 19 seconds left. SOU's Speer would draw a foul with 10 seconds left and calmly connected on both free throws to bring the visiting Raiders within three points (67-64). After a Warrior turnover with four seconds left, Southern Oregon could not connect on its last-second three-point attempt which would result in Corban's hard-fought three-point victory (67-64).

Southern Oregon was led by Speer, who tallied a game-high total of 26 points on 8-for-15 shooting from the field to go along with a 10-for-13 showing at the free throw line. On the boards, Speer pulled down a game-high 15 rebounds to go along with Ashley Baker's 14-point, 10-rebound performance for the Raiders.

As a team, Corban shot 21-for-57 (36.8%) from the field to go along with a 1-for-5 (20.0%) showing from beyond the three-point line and a 24-for-36 (66.7%) performance at the free throw line. On the other hand, Southern Oregon was 22-for-71 (31.0%) from the field, 2-for-11 (18.2%) from long distance, and 18-for-32 (56.3%) at the charity stripe.

Corban will return to the court tomorrow night – Saturday, January 30th – against the Hustlin' Owls of Oregon Tech beginning at 5:30 p.m. inside the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center in Salem.