EUGENE, Ore. – For the second time in as many years, the Northwest Christian University women's basketball team has advanced to the semifinals of the Cascade Collegiate Conference tournament where they will face off against top-seeded Southern Oregon University on Friday night at 7 pm.
 
The Beacons will be in familiar territory, traveling to face the top-ranked team. This season, however, the task at hand seems even more daunting. Last year, NCU hit the road to face CCC-Champion Eastern Oregon in the semis, a team that they had split with in the regular season. This year, the Beacons will face a one-loss Raider team that is ranked No. 5 in the NAIA and hungry to earn one of the No. 1 seeds for the impending NAIA National Tournament.
 
NCU has national tournament aspirations of their own and while a date with a 27-1 opponent with an 11-game winning streak isn't ideal, the Beacons have the blueprint in place to make a run at the upset.
 
Just seven nights earlier, Northwest Christian gave the Raiders one of their toughest tests of the season, holding SOU to a season-low 55 points with an incredibly stout defensive effort. Defense is NCU's calling card, and that will be one of the focuses for Heath Alexander's squad, specifically in transition.
 
The Beacon offense struggled against Southern Oregon last week as NCU scored just 42 points, the lowest output of the season as they shot 28.6% from the field and committed 23 turnovers.  "We will focus on staying in rhythm on offense and taking care of the ball," said Coach Alexander.
 
If everything falls into place and Northwest Christian wins, they will advance to their first ever CCC tournament championship game on Monday, traveling to face the winner of Friday's other semifinal match-up between No. 2 Oregon Tech and No. 3 Eastern Oregon.