Cascade Conference Men's Basketball Championships

ASHLAND – Southern Oregon University will be in a must-win position Wednesday night in the quarterfinal round of the Cascade Collegiate Conference Men's Basketball Championships presented by U.S. Bank.

Northwest Christian (16-12 overall, 10-8 CCC), the team perhaps most responsible for putting the Raiders (22-8, 11-7) in that position, stands in their way.

Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Bob Riehm Arena. Tickets will be sold starting at 5:30 p.m. – all passes, including season passes, are not valid – and those unable to attend can watch the pay-per-view stream or follow live stats at the SOU Athletics Portal.

With losses over the weekend at Warner Pacific and Concordia, the Raiders fell into a second-place tie with Concordia but lost the tiebreaker and settled for the tournament's No. 3 seed. A loss against the Beacons would likely take away their chance for an at-large bid to the 32-team NAIA Championships and spell the end of the season.

The Beacons, who are back in the postseason after a three-year drought as the CCC's No. 6 seed, are looking for their first playoff win since 2009. Their two comeback wins against SOU – 75-71 on Jan. 3 in Ashland, and 93-84 in overtime on Feb. 1 in Eugene – set the Raiders back in a big way and set the stage for the final matchup.

The winner of the CCC tournament will get an automatic bid to the NAIA Championships. If College of Idaho, the regular season champion, advances to the title game then its opponent gets the bid.

- SOU likely isn't going anywhere unless the ball starts going through the hoop again. After leading the CCC in 3-point percentage all season, the Raiders went 10-for-71 from outside while falling twice last weekend.  They scored 54 points the first night and 53 the next, giving them their two lowest-scoring outputs of the season.

- The Raiders were in a similar situation last season and defeated Concordia in the quarterfinals, 100-88, for their first playoff win in eight years. They followed that up with an upset at Eastern Oregon before losing to Warner Pacific in the championship.

- SOU finished conference play tops in field-goal percentage (47.7) and tied for second in field-goal percentage defense (42.6). Four Raider starters shot better than 50 percent during the regular season: Eric Thompson (Roseburg, Ore./Roseburg) (51.0), David Sturner (Philomath, Ore./Philomath) (56.4), Jeff Bush (West Linn, Ore./West Linn) (51.7) and Tim Weber (Roseburg, Ore./Roseburg) (53.1). Thompson was second in CCC play in points (20.2), Bush was second (5.9) and Weber sixth (4.2) in assists, and Thompson was third (8.3) and Sturner fifth (8.2) in rebounds.

- Northwest Christian is 1-4 in the playoffs since joining the CCC for the 2007-08 season. The Beacons went 2-3 in their last five games, pulling out a 75-72 overtime win at Corban in Saturday's regular season finale.

- NCU point guard Javonte Byrd delivered dagger after dagger to SOU's collective chest this season, hitting nine 3-pointers in Ashland and four more in Eugene, including two that sent the game to overtime. Against the Raiders, Byrd is 13-for-19 from 3-point range. He's 9-for-62 against everyone else in the CCC.

- The Beacons rely heavily on three players who transferred from NCAA Division I schools to join Luke Jackson for his first year as head coach. Coleton Baker (16.8 points, 3.1 assists), Spencer Coleman (15.7 points, 7.8 rebounds) and Austin Kuemper (14.4 points, 8.3 rebounds) were prominently featured in conference play. Depth is an issue, however, as the Beacons also have three of the CCC's top four in minutes played and their bench was outscored 38-10 in matchups with the Raiders.

- Thompson did the most damage of any Raider this year against NCU, averaging 24.5 points on 18-for-31 shooting and 8 rebounds. Kyle Tedder (Coos Bay, Ore./Marshfield) averaged 16.5 points and made 9 of 18 3-point attempts.

- Three of the last five games between the teams have gone to overtime. SOU leads the all-time series, 25-18.