PORTLAND – The Southern Oregon men's basketball team's dominance of Warner Pacific will carry over to the new year after a 95-80 come-from-behind victory Saturday night at Bart Valentine Court.
The Raiders outscored the Knights by 22 points over the final 17 minutes to earn their 16th consecutive Cascade Conference win in the head-to-head series.
Atmar Mundu registered 24 points, six rebounds and three assists to pace five players in double figures.
A night after shooting a season-worst 34 percent from the field in a loss at Multnomah, the Raiders bounced back with a season-best 54-percent clip against the Knights.
They upped their record to 8-5 overall and 4-3 in the CCC entering a stretch in which they'll play seven of their next nine games at home. It starts next Friday and Saturday against Bushnell and Corban at Lithia Motors Pavilion.
Mundu scored 13 and
Will Graves had 11 in the second half, where the Knights (7-5, 4-3) – who led by as many as 15 points late in the first half and were up 59-52 early in the second – misfired on all 14 of their 3-point attempts.
In his first start, sophomore forward
Joe Juhala scored 15 points and for the second night in a row shot 3-of-5 from 3. Graves finished with 13 points and five rebounds,
Tez Allen had 11 and four assists, and
Cole McAninch came off the bench to scored 10 on four field-goal attempts.
For Mundu, it was his sixth game of the season and third in a row with 20-plus points.
Maxwell Moses had 23 and Thomas Miles had 21 for WPU. SOU's bench outscored the Knights' by a 27-5 margin.