Cascade Conference WBB: Azusa Pacific 68, SOU 67‏

SOU Women Drop Heartbreaker.

Sophomore forward Alex Moore-Porter scored 14 of her season-high 22 points in the second half, leading Azusa Pacific to the 68-67 come-from-behind win. Courtesy: apu.edu/athletics

AZUSA, Calif. - In a battle between two of the top teams in all of NAIA Women's Basketball, Azusa Pacific held off every challenge from Southern Oregon and came away with a 68-67 tonight at Azusa Pacific's Cougar Classic in Azusa, Calif.

Azusa Pacific, ranked fifth in the NAIA Division I poll, improved to 9-2 with the victory. Southern Oregon, ranked 20th in the latest NAIA Division II rankings, dropped to 9-2 overall. SOU wraps up the Cougar Classic tomorrow afternoon when they take on Hope International.

"Of course a win would have been nice, but we wanted to play this game to get ready for the rest of the season and the tough games ahead of us," SOU Head Coach Lynn Kennedy said. "I think this says a lot about our team to have shot to win it at the end."

Juniors Ashley Baker and Jacki Speer both turned in double-doubles for the Raiders. Baker finished with a team-high 15 points and 12 rebounds. Speer had 13 points and 11 rebounds. Senior Rhiannon Dickison had 14 points and four 3-pointers.

Alex Porter-Moore finished with 22 points to lead Azusa.

SOU showed no problems with the long trip to Los Angeles by jumping out to an early lead on the Cougars and then owning a 37-31 halftime advantage thanks to holding Azusa to 37 percent shooting over the first 20 minutes.

SOU's lead was up to 45-37 with 16:20 to play on a jumper by Speer before the Cougars started to chip away.

An 11-1 Azusa run over the next four minutes was capped by a Porter-Moore 3-pointer to give Azusa a 48-46 lead. The Cougars added seven more straight points before Dickison stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer to trim the advantage to 55-49.

The Raiders then answered with a run of their own and Dickison tied the game at 59-59 with 4:40 to play.

SOU took a 61-60 lead on a Baker jumper, but Azusa answered back and had the lead up to five with under 3:00 to play.

Junior Whitney Scott cut the lead to one twice, including the last time with 1:00 to play, but the Raiders missed two shots in the last four seconds and the Cougars escaped.

"We got a good look at the end and it just didn't go down," Kennedy said. "We missed some shots in the middle of the second half and they got hot. Once we got them back into a running game we were back in it."

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