LEWISTON, Idaho — A seeming inevitability became fact on Saturday night: No. 3-ranked Southern Oregon, in the midst of the most dominant run in team history, is a Cascade Conference regular season champion once again.

The Raiders completed their title defense in familiar fashion, defeating Lewis-Clark State 61-52 at the P1FCU Activity Center to stay perfect at 25-0 overall and 19-0 in the CCC. Including a couple of tournament victories, it was the fourth time SOU has clinched a championship with a win against the Warriors (21-5, 15-5) in the last four seasons.

Two seniors came up big for the Raiders: point guard Meghan McIntyre with 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting, four assists and four rebounds, and wing Emma Schmerbach with 17 points on 9-of-12 shooting, nine rebounds, and some suffocating defense on LC State’s All-CCC guard.

SOU went into halftime up 10 after outscoring the Warriors 16-7 in the second quarter, but that lead was down to three when Sitara Byrd scored inside with 4:22 remaining. The Raiders didn’t give up a point the rest of the way, shutting down the Warriors on their last seven possessions and forcing turnovers on three of those.

“This is an extremely hard place to win and we knew that coming in,” SOU coach Carlotta Kloppenburg-Pruitt said. “Our team was really locked into the game plan, on the defensive end especially. We talk about how toughness travels and we showed that today. I’m really proud of the effort and energy they brought this weekend.”

The win gave the Raiders at least a share of the title — their seventh all-time and fourth in the last decade — with three regular season games left to play. Their first chance to claim it outright is 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in Ashland against the team right behind them in the standings, No. 22 Oregon Tech.

McIntyre, whose point total was a season-high, got the Raiders out in front by knocking down nine of her first 10 attempts from the field, including a pair of 3-pointers. Schmerbach started hot, too, but her biggest contribution was holding Ellie Sander — who set a Lithia Motors Pavilion record with 36 points in the teams’ first matchup — to four points on 2-of-8 shooting with four turnovers.

Payton Hymas picked up the slack in the backcourt for LC State with 15 points and nine assists. She also coughed up the ball four times, though, and SOU turned the miscues by her and Sander into a 21-7 edge in points off turnovers.

Clara Robbins affected the game defensively with five rebounds, three steals and two blocks. Eliza DiGiulio scored six points off the bench, and Makayla Scurlock came on to collect six rebounds.

The Raiders have won back-to-back championships for the second time in program history. The first was in 2015-16 and 2016-17.

Dating back to last season, they’ve won 22 consecutive road games and 33 CCC contests in a row.

Men’s Basketball

LEWIS-CLARK STATE 84, SOU 79: At Lewiston, Idaho, Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) had the final say in a back-and-forth game Saturday night, widening the gap between the third- and fourth-place teams in the Cascade Conference standings.

Ten straight points gave the Raiders a 58-47 cushion with 13 minutes to play, but the Warriors shot 13-of-19 from that point on to survive behind sophomore forward Alton Hamilton’s 22 points and 12 rebounds.

John Lustig scored 14 of his 20 in the second half for LC State (20-6, 15-5 CCC). He hit four consecutive free throws in the final 30 seconds to ice the win.

Of SOU’s seven CCC losses, six have been decided by five or fewer points.

The result put a damper on SOU forward Bryce Dyer’s career-high 21-point output. The sophomore from North Medford went 9-of-14 and added 12 rebounds for his second double-double of the weekend and eighth of the season.

The Raiders, who’d won nine of their previous 10 games, fell to 17-8 and 12-7 in the CCC. Entering a three-game homestand that starts at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday with Oregon Tech and runs to the end of the regular season, they’re 2 ½ games behind the Warriors and a half-game up on fifth-place Multnomah.

Elijah Jackson scored 20 points for SOU, including 13 during the first half as the teams went to the break tied 38-38.

Dyer and Joe Juhala drilled bookend 3-pointers during the run that put the Raiders up 11. LC State responded with its own 10-0 surge, but didn’t take the lead until Dylan Skaife hit his fourth 3-pointer to make it 69-68 with 5:35 left. It never changed hands again.

Women’s Wrestling

SOU SWEEPS: At Ashland, Southern Oregon’s five seniors all walked away with victories in their final home appearances as the No. 5-ranked Raiders defeated Simpson (Calif.), 49-0, and Menlo (Calif.), 32-14, in dual action Saturday at Riehm Arena.

Both matchups were forfeit-heavy on the visitors’ ends — particularly the Simpson dual, in which Emma Baertlein and Vida Boskovic were the only Raiders who saw opponents. Baertlein, a senior ranked No. 4 in the NAIA at 110 pounds, finished off a technical fall of Jacqueline Placencia in the first round before Boskovic pinned Sabrina Stewart in 31 seconds at 160.

The Raiders and Oaks split six contested weight classes, while the other four went to SOU by forfeit. Senior 117-pounder Marissa Kurtz, ranked eighth, pinned Leilah Patel in 3:34, and top-ranked senior Carolina Moreno extended her winning streak to 60 matches with a technical-fall shutout of Carmella Foley. No. 7-ranked freshman Holland Wieber picked up SOU’s final victory by 6-4 decision against Maci Stemmons.

The Raiders wrapped up their dual schedule with a 12-3 record.