ASHLAND, Ore. – Just over 12% from beyond the three-point arc was all the No. 18-ranked Corban University Women's Basketball team could muster against the defending Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) regular season and tournament champions, as the Warriors kept pace with RV Southern Oregon University throughout their first road conference game of the year yet missed 21 longballs across a 57-50 final score to drop their second-straight matchup after beginning the regular season with an unscathed 9-0 overall record.
"Really proud of our growth on the defensive end of the court as we've been emphasizing that to keep us in the game," explained Corban head coach Kylie Frizell. "Their pressure unfortunately took us too much out of sync to fully be able to execute on the offensive end."
Southern Oregon (8-3, 3-0) was able to pick up an eleventh-consecutive win against Corban (9-2, 2-1) thanks to their full court press that jarred the Warriors into a season-low point total, as they turned the ball over 22 times off 16 Raider steals that still barely swung the momentum in the home team's favor, as the Navy and Gold kept pace the entire game before falling behind by multiple possessions in the closing seconds at the free throw line. The Dubs' worst offensive contest of the season was still just a seven-point loss deep in enemy territory thanks to their own defensive presence that limited SOU to under 60 points on their home court despite scoring over 70 in each of their previous CCC victories two weekends ago.
Redshirt sophomore guard Jersey Huerta was the lone Warrior in double-figure scoring tonight, dropping a game-high 18 points with 13 coming in the first half alone alongside four rebounds and a team-best three assists. Graduate student center Emilia Bishop tacked on seven more points with her presence being known in the key via a game-high 13 rebounds. Corban led the Raiders in points scored in the paint (34-24), fastbreak points (11-7), and bench points (13-12), yet 22 turnovers and a 35.6% field goal percentage from the field resulted in their second-consecutive loss and first in conference action.
Raiders' All-Conference guard Bridgette McIntyre hit the shots her team needed down the stretch to tie Huerta for the game-high scoring mark with 18 points of her own, assisting on four buckets along the way. Guard Keeley Wright added 11 points with four steals and five rebounds to pace SOU's offense, which held the Warriors to their lowest offensive output of the season to date and who will have an opportunity to avenge tonight's loss on Tim Hills Court the first weekend of next February.
The Warriors are in the Klamath Basin tomorrow afternoon for a top twenty national matchup, as they'll clash with No. 20-ranked Oregon Tech (7-4, 3-0) at 3pm on Danny Miles Court.
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