After losing the previous two matchups by a combined 54 points, the Southern Oregon men had to try something different in tonight's opening round matchup of the Cascade Conference Postseason Tournament and it almost worked.

The Raiders took the air out of the ball and slowed the game down, but didn't have enough at the end and fell to 11th-ranked and second-seeded Eastern Oregon 53-43 tonight in La Grande.

Eastern Oregon improved to 24-5 and advances to Saturday's conference semifinals. Southern Oregon's season ends at 14-16.

JC Cook led the Mountaineers with 12 points and Jason Mumm finished with 10 points.

Freshman Kyle Tedder (Coos Bay, Ore./Marshfield) had 14 points for the Raiders and Jordan Highland (Tualatin, Ore./Tualatin) had 13 points.

The Raiders went into the game, wanting to do all it can to get the Mountaineers out of their rhythm and elected to run the shot clock down on every possession.

The strategy worked and after Eastern jumped out to a 13-4 early lead, the Raiders would make a game of it.

Three-pointers by Dex Daum (Fallon, Nev./Churchill) and Tedder helped cut the Eastern lead to 15-13 with 9:17 to play in the first half.

Eastern's lead would not get bigger then four for the rest of the half and a three-point play by Daum trimmed Eastern's lead to 22-21 at the half.

In the second half, a layup by Highland gave SOU a 25-24 lead - its first lead since 2-0 to start the game.

Eastern scored four straight points to re-gain the lead, but a basket by Scott Tiefenthaler (Spanaway, Wash./Bethel) gave the lead back to the Raiders briefly at 31-30.

The Mountaineers finally got the breathing room they needed with a 7-2 run midway through the half and when SOU had to foul to keep it close late, the Mountaineers iced it with free throws.

Eastern entered the game ranked sixth in the Nation in scoring at almost 85 points per game.