7:30 p.m. Tuesday – Oregon Tech at SOU | Live Stats
7:30 p.m. Friday – Warner Pacific at SOU | Live Stats
5 p.m. Saturday – Multnomah at SOU | Live Stats
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ASHLAND – As the cliché goes, you can throw out the records when rivals like Southern Oregon and Oregon Tech match up. The Owls will gladly oblige considering their recent struggles, and the Raiders should have no shortage of motivation while attempting to complete their first regular-season sweep of the series in eight years.

SOU (12-7 overall, 8-5 Cascade Conference) and OIT (8-11, 5-8) are set to clash for the 249th time at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday inside Lithia Motors Pavilion. A win would ease the sting of the Raiders' upset bid that fell just short Saturday against top-ranked College of Idaho, and keep them well within striking distance of a top-two spot in the standings. They enter the night in fifth place – two losses back of second-place Eastern Oregon, which they thumped by 25 points on Saturday, and one loss back of Warner Pacific and Corban, which they also defeated during the first half of CCC play. The Owls, losers of four of their last six, are in desperate need of a pick-me-up in eighth place, but still plenty dangerous enough to get hot with the 26th-best offense rating in the NAIA.

The Raiders continue their five-game homestand Friday against third-place Warner Pacific (13-6, 10-4), followed on Saturday by a Multnomah (12-8, 7-7) team that upset SOU in Portland.

LAST WEEK IN REVIEW: SOU won its fourth consecutive game Friday in resounding fashion against EOU, breaking away by a score of 88-63 behind Josh Meyer's 15 points, 13 rebounds and four assists. Khalil Chatman and Cole McAninch scored 14 points apiece off the bench on 11-of-17 combined shooting as the Raiders ended the night on a 17-3 run to avenge an overtime loss in La Grande. The Raiders and No. 1 College of Idaho traded leads 12 times on Saturday – after doing so 13 times on Dec. 2 in Caldwell – in a 60-54 Yotes win that marked their 18th straight. SOU led 51-47 late before misfiring on eight of its last nine field-goal attempts, finishing 3-of-17 from 3-point range in the second half. Meyer scored a game-high 17 points but the rest of the Raiders combined to go 13-of-40.

BRIEFLY:

• Josh Meyer has pieced together his best stretch of the season entering the OIT matchup, averaging 18.3 points on 19-of-29 shooting from the field and 9-of-16 shooting from 3 over SOU's last three games. The two-time All-CCC forward had only scored in double figures once in the nine games that preceded the stretch but is back up to 49 percent on field-goal attempts. He's the CCC's seventh-leading rebounder at 7.3 per game, leads all conference forwards at 3.4 assists, and has now posted 20 double-doubles in 61 career outings for the Raiders.
• Cole McAninch continues to give the Raiders key minutes off the bench, shooting a team-best 55 percent from the field and 69 percent (45-of-65) on two-point attempts. His 14 points against EOU marked a season-high.
• Atmar Mundu's streak of 24 consecutive games scoring in double figures is the longest for a Raider since Eric Thompson – the program's all-time leading scorer – did so in 26 straight during the 2011-12 season. In conference play, Mundu ranks fifth in points (17.0), first in 3-point makes per game (2.9) and 12th in 3-point percentage (40.2). He and Will Graves, averaging 1.8 makes from 3 per game, have pushed the Raiders to the top of the CCC leaderboard in 3-point attempts: They're getting up 29.3 per CCC game, four more than any other team and 11 more than OIT.
• The Raiders are 10-1 when scoring at least 80 points in regulation this season, having won 16 straight CCC games and 30 of their last 31 when hitting that number. They're also giving up just 69.5 points per game in CCC play, the team's lowest number of the last 15 years. Dominic McGarvey's presence inside has provided a big boost: Among CCC players, he's third in blocked shots (1.4) and 14th in rebounds (5.9). Conference opponents are shooting under 48 percent on two-point attempts against the Raiders.
• Tez Allen will make his 122nd career start tonight, closing in on Eric Thompson (126) for the most of any Raider since 2000. He's up to 449 assists – four away from the No. 3 spot on SOU's all-time list – and is three rebounds away from becoming the seventh Raider ever with 700. He's already the only player in team history with 1,000 points, 600 rebounds and 400 assists. Allen is No. 4 on the CCC assists leaderboard at 3.6 per game.
• The Raiders are 41-15 at home since moving into Lithia Motors Pavilion in 2018, including a 37-11 record in conference matchups.

ABOUT OREGON TECH: After bringing back nine players who last year appeared in the NAIA Round of 32 and ranking No. 22 in the NAIA preseason poll, the Owls have struggled to find consistency and not yet won more than two consecutive games. They've been bit recently by injuries, losing starting guard Erik Fraser (12.3 points) a few weeks ago and starting point guard Kam Osborn (9.4 points, 3.3) for all but a few minutes of last weekend's sweep at the hands of College of Idaho (87-75) and Eastern Oregon (87-72). Keegan Shivers (12.8 points, 45-of-103 3FG) remains one of the most dangerous guard in the circuits, and they still have a formidable frontcourt in Joey Potts (12.5 points, 2.3 blocks) and Kody Bauman (10.1 points, 6.1 rebounds), who both shoot over 60 percent. They're 3-6 on the road, though they've won four of their last five games in Ashland. OIT is 161-87 in the all-time series against SOU, but the Raiders won this season's first meeting 84-75 after erasing a 10-point second-half deficit and shooting 14-of-26 from 3.