Box Score LA GRANDE – Southern Oregon left little doubt of its ability to compete against one of the top teams in the nation on the road as the 18th-ranked Raiders earned their first NAIA Division II Men's Basketball National Tournament bid since 2006 with a dominant 89-71 win over No. 4 Eastern Oregon in Saturday's Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament semifinal.

The win improves SOU's season record to 24-8, tying the program mark for most wins in a season as only the 1941-42 and 1946-47 teams had reached 24 wins previously. Southern Oregon, the third seed in the conference tournament, advances to Tuesday's CCC Championship at 7 p.m. against top-seeded Warner Pacific at 7 p.m.

Warner Pacific earned one of the conference's two automatic bids to the NAIA Tournament by virtue of tying for the regular season conference title and earning the top seed in the conference tournament. The second automatic bid goes to the conference tournament champion if it is different from the regular season titlist or the second semifinal winner if the top seed advances to the title game.

Saturday's win marked the Raiders' eight consecutive victory and their second win over Eastern Oregon this season. The Raiders handed then-No. 2 EOU its first loss of the season back in December.

Jeff Bush (West Linn, Ore./West Linn) continued his dominant play, tying David Sturner (Philomath, Ore./Philomath) for the game-high point total with 20 points. Bush connected on six of his eight shot attempts, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc, and went a perfect 5-of-5 at the free throw line while dishing eight assists in 35 minutes of play. Sturner tallied a double-double with 11 rebounds, and Eric Thompson (Roseburg, Ore./Roseburg) also posted a double-double with 18 points and 10 boards. Kyle Tedder (Coos Bay, Ore./Marshfield) scored 13 points for the Raiders.

Tony Eackles, Jr., led Eastern Oregon with 17 points and Trent Roos added 12 for the Mountaineers. While the Southern Oregon defense continued its streak of eight straight games shooting at least 49 percent by going 28-of-55 (50.9 percent) from the field, the SOU defense stifled EOU into 35.8 percent shooting (24-of-67) in the game.

The Raiders scored the first four points of the game and, aside from one tie score midway through the first half, led the whole way. A three-pointer by Bush less than eight minutes into the game gave SOU its first double-digit lead of the contest at 16-6. Eastern Oregon put together its one run of the game at that point, as the Mountaineers scored 14 of the next 18 points to tie it at 20-apiece.

A Thompson layup broke the tie, and Thompson and Taylor Roos (Salem, Ore./Sprague) followed with back-to-back threes as SOU scored 10 straight points to reclaim the double-digit advantage. Eastern Oregon pulled back within five points with three minutes to play before halftime, but the Raiders held a 42-34 lead going into the break.

Eastern Oregon continued to battle throughout the second half, bouncing between six and 12 points back until the final minutes. Even as the Mountaineers would not allow the Raiders to pull away until late, the Raiders prevented the hosts from drawing closer than two possessions back.

After a JD Esters jumper made it 78-70 with 1:52 to play, Tedder hit a jumper to push the lead back to double-digits and the Raiders made nine of their 10 free throw attempts down the stretch to pull away to the upset victory.