Box Score EUGENE – The 16th-ranked Southern Oregon men's basketball team battled back from a nine-point second-half deficit to force overtime, and a pair of free throws in the final 30 seconds clinched a 71-69 win for the Raiders over Northwest Christian Friday night at Morse Event Center.

Southern Oregon improves to 7-3 overall and 1-0 win the win in the 2012-13 Cascade Collegiate Conference opener, while Northwest Christian falls to 6-4 overall and 0-1 in the CCC. The Raiders return to action Saturday night when they will take on Corban at 7:30 p.m. in Salem.

Dex Daum (Fallon, Nev./Churchill) made six of his seven shot attempts, including all five attempts from beyond the three-point arc, to score a team-best 17 points in the win. Eric Thompson (Roseburg, Ore./Roseburg) posted a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds, Kyle Tedder (Coos Bay, Ore./Marshfield) tallied 11 points and Jeff Bush (West Linn, Ore./West Linn) and Terriel Thomas (Boise, Idaho/Borah) each finished with 10 points. Southern Oregon made 50 percent of its shots in the game (27-of-54), including 11-of-22 from three-point range, to overcome 23 turnovers.

Jordan Buhler scored 25 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Northwest Christian. Travis Pacos finished with 14 points and Greg Shepard added 11. The Beacons shot only 37.7 percent (29-of-77) in the contest.

Both teams struggled during the first 10 minutes as the Raiders held an 11-8 advantage at the midway point of the first half. Northwest Christian used a 12-point streak to turn the three-point deficit into a nine-point advantage with less than four minutes remaining in the period, and the Beacons went into the break with a 27-20 lead.

The second half featured stronger shooting performances from both teams. Southern Oregon improved from 36.4 percent (8-of-22) in the first half to 60.7 percent (17-of-28) in the second half, while NCU went from 29.7 percent (11-of-37) to 48.4 percent (15-of-31). A 17-10 SOU run to start the period pulled the Raiders back to even less than seven minutes into the half when Tedder hit a three to make it 37-37.

Southern Oregon built its largest lead of the game a few minutes later when Daum made a three-pointer to put SOU up 47-41, but Northwest Christian scored the next six points to tie it up, and neither team led by more than one possession down the stretch. A Tedder layup gave SOU a 62-60 lead in the final minute, but Buhler tied it with seven seconds remaining to force overtime.

Northwest Christian took a two-point lead in the first minute of overtime, but the extra period featured four tie scores as the Raiders earned the road win. The Beacons' final lead came on a Buhler free throw to make it 69-68 with 39 seconds to play, but free throws by Tedder and David Sturner (Philomath, Ore./Philomath) down the stretch gave SOU the final three points of the game.