ASHLAND – The 23rd-ranked Southern Oregon men's basketball team faces some tough opposition this weekend at the Daytona Mitsubishi/Kia Shootout hosted by Embry-Riddle at the ICI Center in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Southern Oregon, 2-0 this season, will face No. 11 Davenport in a Friday night contest slated to begin at 10 p.m. local time, 7 p.m. PST. The winner of that game will face the winner of the early contest, either Shawnee State or tournament host No. 16 Embry-Riddle Saturday evening.

The Raiders picked up a pair of road wins last week, defeating Pacific Union and Menlo down in California. Eric Thompson (Roseburg, Ore./Roseburg) has averaged 18.5 points per game, while Taylor Roos (Salem, Ore./Sprague) has added 15.5 for the Raiders as SOU narrowly defeated the Oaks with a last-second shot by Thompson. Newcomer David Sturner (Philomath, Ore./Philomath) has added 23 total points in the two contests and averaged a team-best seven rebounds per game.

Davenport enters the season with a 2-1 record after falling to No. 4 Indiana Wesleyan on Saturday. The Panthers come into the season looking to replace six graduated seniors from last year's team that advanced to the NAIA Division II Fab Four round of the national tournament. JaVontae Ford leads the team through three games, averaging 14.3 points and eight rebounds per game.

Shawnee State comes into the weekend with a 1-1 record and looking to bounce back from last year's 10-20 finish. Jeremy Bennington has averaged 26 points for the Bears through their first two games, while Tyler Morgan has added 16.5 points per contest.

Tournament host Embry-Riddle owns a 1-0 record and the No. 16 ranking in the NAIA preseason poll. Jason Powell led the team with 16 points and Ricardo Saldana grabbed 11 rebounds in the Eagles' season-opening 74-58 win over Sterling.

All three teams will represent new opponents for SOU, as the Raiders have never faced any of the teams prior to this weekend. Southern Oregon looks to continue its strong start to the season against the tough non-conference opponents to prepare the Raiders for the strong Cascade Collegiate Conference schedule.

After this weekend, the Raiders will head to Klamath Falls next weekend to face Holy Names and William Jessup in the Oregon Tech Tournament before hosting No. 2 Oregon Tech in a non-conference rivalry matchup at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 20 in Bob Riehm Arena.