ASHLAND, Ore. – Sprinting out to a 27-4 lead in the opening eight minutes, Southern Oregon cruised to a 78-63 victory over the College of Idaho in the quarterfinals of the Cascade Conference Championships, presented by U.S. Bank.
The No. 8 ranked Raiders (26-3) will host Oregon Tech on Friday in one semifinal, while top-seed Eastern Oregon hosts Northwest Christian.
SOU made 11 of their first 18 shots in the win, as Kristen Schoenherr canned back-to-back triples to open a 9-0 lead, with an Ashley Claussen trey pushing the margin to 18-4. The Raiders scored the next nine points, including three Courtney West lay-ups, to take the 27-4 lead at the 11:13 mark of the period.
The Lady Yotes (8-20) made just 2-of-17 shots to open the game and had six turnovers during the SOU run.
Leading 43-19 at the break, Southern took their largest lead of the night early in the second half at 53-26 after an Autumn Durand 3-pointer. C of I would not quit, as back-to-back Kellie Ross treys cut the margin to 59-39. The Yotes held SOU without a made field goal over the final six minutes, but could not overcome the early deficit.
Five Raiders scored in double figures – with Schoenherr scoring 13 and Claussen adding 13 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists. SOU won despite going 0-for-6 from 3-point range in the second half and committing 19 turnovers.
Elisha Hensey scored 21 points in her final collegiate game for the Yotes, with Ross scoring a season-high 18 points. Brittany Wirth had 10 points and team-highs of nine rebounds and seven steals. Two other seniors played their final games in a C of I uniform, as Aleah Lowber scored five points and Jessica Aguilar added two points and one rebound.
