As the cold creeps in with the night, its going to be warming up in Bob Rheim Arena on Friday.

The Southern Oregon University Lady Raiders are taking to the court as they open the season against the California Maritime Academy Keelhaulers.

For the Keelhaulers, they are coming off a 14-16 overall and a 7-3 California Pacific Conference record during their 2011-2012 campaign as the program is looking to turn around after a few dismal years leading up to last year.

The Keelhaulers are young as they have only one senior, shooting guard Courtney Chew, on roster compare to nine players who will be suiting down.  Three of which are freshman.

California Maritime can bust out with points as they crack 80 or more six times last season that included a 104-97 victory over Holy Names University in the CALPAC Semi-final game in February.

Their defense isn’t spectaular however; as they allowed opponents to score at least 80 in 11 contest, only winning three of them.

As for the Raiders, they are coming off a below-par season under seventh-year head coach Lynn Kennedy; as the Raiders found themselves 14-16 overall and 5-13 in Cascade Collegiate Conference play after five consecutive winning seasons and were faced with several spells of the injury bug.

But thanks to hard rehab, conditioning and practice up to this point; Kennedy expects his team to make a full recovery and return back to their winning ways one day at a time.

The Raiders hope to build off the strong foundation behind Haley Newell and Angelica Cahee while bringing in six new faces to the program.

Newell is the key offensive player for the Raiders.  She average 10.9 points last season, shot 78.9-percent from the free throw line and shot 32.4 percent from the three-point line.

As for Cahee, she is the key defensive player for the squad and probably the most complete player, averaging 3.9 rebounds a game and had 54 steals last season on top of her 8.6 points per game offesively while shooting 39.4 percent from the floor.

Back to the game at hand.

The last time the Keelhaulers met the Raiders, it was in the same Southern Oregon Women’s Season Opener Tournament in 2011; that saw California Maritime Academy up 41-24 at halftime before slipping out from the grip of a surging second half Raiders squad, 73-67.

Tip off to the regular season starts at 7pm, Friday Night at Bob Rheim Arena in Ashland. 

sources:

http://www.cmakeelhaulers.com/schedule/9/2.php

http://www.cmakeelhaulers.com/roster/0/2.php

http://www.souraiders.com/custompages/women’s%20basketball/history/Results.pdf

http://www.souraiders.com/custompages/women’s%20basketball/1112Stats/teamcume.htm