Raiders historic run ended in heartbreak Saturday, top seed edges SOU 74-70
SIOUX CITY, Iowa – A giant what-if clouded Southern Oregon’s historic run as the season ended in heartbreak Saturday in the NAIA Women’s Basketball Championship quarterfinals.
Top-seeded Bethel (Tenn.) dinged the No. 2-seeded Raiders’ perfect record and knocked them out of the tournament by storming back for a 74-70 win at the Tyson Events Center. In a 2-point game with two minutes left, SOU (34-1) missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer and watched as Wildcats guard Kaylnn Howard stuck a triple on the other end. SOU eventually cut the deficit to 73-70 on a Mallory Williams 3 with eight seconds on the clock, but a Micah Hart free throw put them away.
The wind was taken out of the Raiders’ sails much earlier. They led 48-34 with 7:35 to go in the third quarter and were in the midst of an 18-4 run when Morgan Baird, their Cascade Conference Player of the Year, exited with an injury. When she returned to the sideline, she was accompanied by a pair of crutches. The senior forward had been 5-of-8 with 10 points and seven rebounds before going out.
That was one turning point; a reversal of Bethel’s shooting fortunes was the other. After clanking 12 of their 14 3-point attempts in the first half, the Wildcats went 9-of-15 from deep in the second compared to SOU’s 1-of-14 display in the half. Kylie Reynolds came off the bench to spark them with three in a row late in the third quarter, trimming nine points off a 10-point deficit.
Hart tallied 13 of her game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter for Bethel (27-7), which advanced to play defending national champion Dordt (Iowa) in Monday’s semifinals.
Meghan McIntyre, SOU’s two-time all-conference point guard, went out with team-highs of 15 points, six assists and two steals. Emma Schmerbach, another senior and the CCC Defensive Player of the Year, registered 11 points and two steals in her final outing.
Baird’s injury conjured up foul memories of the Raiders’ last deep tournament run. Their 2015-16 team also lost a CCC Player of the Year to injury, point guard Ashley Claussen, during the NAIA Division II quarterfinal round. They went on to reach the championship game anyway, but couldn’t muster enough offense without Claussen to topple Marian (Ind.) for the title.
This year’s Raiders, under coach Carlotta Kloppenburg-Pruitt, broke the program record for wins in a season, captured CCC regular season and tournament titles, and advanced past the second round for the first time since the NAIA’s two divisions merged and the bracket expanded to 64 teams three years ago.
The game was the last for seven seniors. They won 62 of 68 games together over the last two seasons.
This story first appeared on the Southern Oregon University Sports Information website, souraiders.com.
