by ASHLAND – A night after putting forth its most prolific 3-point shooting half ever, 18th-ranked Southern Oregon retained its shooting touch for 40 minutes in an 85-52 defeat of Walla Walla (Wash.) on Saturday at Lithia Motors Pavilion.
Daranda Hinkey (Shoshone/Paiute) connected on all six of her attempts from 3, Delaney Sparling hit four in a row in the fourth quarter to finish 5-of-8 and the Raiders shot 16-of-29 as a team, landing one make short of the program record.
Hinkey went 5-of-5 in the first half as she and Sparling scored 18 points each, marking a career-high for the latter guard. Ariel Augustine put up 17 points, nine rebounds and four assists, knocking down three triples of her own.
The Raiders’ 55-percent mark from outside was the highest in team history in a game with so many makes.
They improved to 10-4 overall and 6-2 in the Cascade Conference, keeping a hold on second place going into Tuesday’s 5:30 p.m. home matchup with Oregon Tech.
The Wolves (2-15, 1-7 CCC) also started hot from 3: They shot 5-of-9 in the first quarter and took a 20-19 lead a minute into the second, but went 2-of-11 the rest of the way.
SOU finished the half on a 21-7 run that included triples from four different players. Dominique Harding was one of them and totaled 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists off the bench.
The Raiders matched a season-high with 23 assists on 29 field goals. Kenadee Honaker dished out five to go with seven rebounds and a team-high four steals.
SOU is now 5-0 at home.
Another Native girl going “wild”. So awesome Daranda Hinkey. You go girl!!!!😘😍🥰🤗.