7:30 p.m. Friday – Eastern Oregon at Southern Oregon | Live Stats
5 p.m. Saturday – College of Idaho at Southern Oregon | Live Stats
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ASHLAND – The meaty part of the Southern Oregon men's basketball team's schedule has arrived in the form of a five-game homestand and the best competition in the Cascade Conference.

In a span of nine days, the Raiders (11-6 overall, 7-4 CCC) will host the top-ranked team in the NAIA, the conference's second- and third-place squads, their biggest rival, and a team that upset them on the road three weeks ago. They've won three in a row entering the stretch. It begins this weekend inside Lithia Motors Pavilion, where SOU plays Eastern Oregon (12-5, 9-2) at 7:30 p.m. Friday and No. 1 College of Idaho (16-1, 11-0) at 5 p.m. Saturday.

LAST WEEK IN REVIEW: The Raiders have some momentum after completing their first CCC road sweep of the season, winning 82-68 at Walla Walla (Wash.) and 85-81 at Lewis-Clark State (Idaho). Against winless WWU, eight different players contributed multiple buckets – Will Graves' 15 points and Atmar Mundu's 14 led the way – and the Raiders generated 10 extra possessions by forcing 19 turnovers and pulling down 18 offensive boards. At LCSC, Atmar Mundu and Josh Meyer combined for 53 points, including 36 on 9-of-10 shooting in the second half. After trailing 58-57 with nine minutes left, buckets by Mundu and Graves started a 9-0 run that swung the game. Since going 0-2 on their CCC-opening trip, the Raiders are 4-1 in conference road games.

BRIEFLY:

• The Raiders are 9-1 when they score at least 80 points in regulation, and in CCC play they've won 15 straight and 30 of their last 31 when hitting that number – the only loss in that span being an overtime affair. They still possess the 26th-best offensive rating (112.2 points/100 possessions) out of 234 NAIA teams, but three CCC teams are ahead of them in that category and they'll see each of them over the next five days. The Raiders' defense has picked up in CCC play: They're allowing 97.6 points per 100 possessions, which trails only College of Idaho (86.4) and Corban (92.5).
• Atmar Mundu has scored in double figures 22 games in a row dating back to last season – tied for the longest such stretch for any SOU player since Eric Thompson's 26 straight in 2011-12. He ranks second in CCC at 18.5 points per game; no Raider has averaged 18 or more since Ben DeSaulnier seven years ago. With 48 3-pointers, he's already made more than all but one Raider (Aaron Borich) in a single season over the last five years, and his 48-percent clip from 3 would be the best in team history among players averaging a make per game. In the second halves of CCC games, Mundu is averaging 11.1 points on 52-percent shooting.
• Will Graves is averaging 16 points in home games on 19-of-37 shooting from 3. At 11.9 points per game overall in CCC play, he's 27th on the conference leaderboard.
• With 445 career assists, Tez Allen is eight away from moving into the No. 3 spot on SOU's all-time list. Five more rebounds will make him the seventh Raider ever with 700. He's already the only player in team history with 1,000 points, 600 rebounds and 400 assists in a career. His 11 assists at LCSC matched a career-high, bumping his CCC average to 3.9 – the second-best mark in the circuit.
• The Raiders' average of 9.9 3-point makes per conference game leads the CCC. They've attempted 16 more than any other team in CCC play.
• Josh Meyer's 23 points at LCSC marked a season-high, and it was his 10th 20-point effort in 59 appearances at SOU. He's averaging 13.7 in his career. Alongside him in the frontcourt, Dominic McGarvey is 10th in blocked shots (0.7) and 13th in rebounds (6.1) among circuit players.
• The Raiders are 40-14 at home since moving into Lithia Motors Pavilion in 2018. That includes a 36-10 record in conference matchups.

ABOUT EASTERN OREGON: On Dec. 3 in La Grande, the Mountaineers prevailed 96-90 over SOU in overtime as Phillip Malatare scored 22 points and poured in the final 10 of the night. His heroics spoiled a comeback in which the Raiders erased a 15-point deficit in the second half. Malatare, an All-CCC senior point guard, is the engine of a dangerous EOU offense with team-best averages of 18.5 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists. He does his best work in the mid-range, but the Mountaineers shoot a staggering 39 percent from 3 – having gotten 45 makes from Adam Orr (9.4 points) and 42 from Emmit Taylor (13.3). They've won seven of their last eight entering the weekend, but have historically struggled in Ashland with 10 losses in their last 11 trips. SOU leads the all-time series, 108-88.

ABOUT COLLEGE OF IDAHO: Since a season-opening loss at Arizona Christian, the Yotes have ticked off 16 consecutive victories and put themselves in pole position to claim a third straight CCC title. SOU gave them one of their best tests on Dec. 2 in Caldwell, where the teams traded the lead 13 times but the Yotes held on 67-59 in the Raiders' lowest-scoring outing of the season. C of I owns the fourth-best offense in the NAIA with balanced production: Their leading scorer, guard Johnny Radford, averages 13.8 points and has only started one game. Drew Wyman (12.8 points) and Tyler Robinett (10.4) make up a formidable frontcourt that has led the team to 49-percent accuracy from the field. The Yotes are also averaging five more offensive rebounds and four fewer turnovers than their opponents while winning by an average of 21.7 points. They've won seven in a row against the Raider and are 60-25 overall in the matchup.