RAIDER MEN'S BASKETBALL (2-3)
7:30 p.m. Friday – vs. No. 2 College of Idaho (5-1) | Live Stats
5 p.m. Saturday – vs. Eastern Oregon (1-4) | Live Stats
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ASHLAND – A new-look rotation makes Southern Oregon a relative unknown in the Cascade Conference men's basketball landscape. With the top two teams in the preseason poll coming to Lithia Motors Pavilion, the opening weekend of CCC play will serve as a litmus test of the Raiders' place in the contender conversation.

No. 2-ranked College of Idaho (5-1), the defending NAIA champion, is in town Friday for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff with most of the pieces that helped the Yotes to their third consecutive full-season conference title in 2022-23 back again. The Raiders (2-3) face Eastern Oregon (1-4) at 5 p.m. Saturday, looking to hand the Mountaineers their 12th loss in their last 13 trips to Ashland.

LAST WEEK IN REVIEW: The Raiders let it fly to a recently-unprecedented degree in last Wednesday's 101-64 win over Cal Maritime. They went 19-of-49 from 3-point range, both making an attempting more shots from the arc than in any game over at least the last 25 years. Redshirt-freshman Bryce Dyer flirted with a triple-double, going for 14 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists and two steals to lead seven Raiders in double figures. Mason Whittaker shot 4-of-7 from 3 and scored 14 points as SOU assisted on 28 of its 36 buckets and shot 49 percent overall.

NAIA TOP 25: In Wednesday's second coaches' poll of the regular season, Grace (Ind.) supplanted College of Idaho in the top spot due to the Yotes' 94-67 loss at home to hot-shooting Vanguard (Calif.) on Nov. 17. The Yotes' win streak, which dated back to last November, ended at 38 games, but they've since won three in a row handily. They're No. 2 in the poll, and Oregon Tech is the only other CCC team receiving votes at No. 26 overall.

BRIEFLY:

• Before meeting Cal Maritime, the Raiders had attempted more than 40 3-pointers just once over the last 25 years – last February, when they put up 41. Their previous high in makes during that span was a 17-of-32 display in the 2019-20 regular season finale. It was a return to form of sorts: Last season they ranked 10th nationally in 3-point attempts per game (28.2), and through their first four games this season they'd averaged 21.8. Since Matt Zosel took over as head coach last year, the Raiders are 15-4 when they make at least 10 3s and 22-3 when they score at least 70 points.
• Bryce Dyer's box-score-stuffing performance solidified his newfound spot in the starting lineup. The North Medford product currently leads the team in rebounds (7.0), field-goal percentage (57.1) and steals (1.6), and ranks second in both points (10.2) and assists (3.4). Since debuting last season – when he retained his redshirt status by appearing in just six games – he has shot 30-of-53 from the field and 9-of-24 from 3, posting 12.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per 30 minutes played.
• Back on the floor for the first time since 2019-20, junior point guard Teron Bradford is giving the Raiders 9.0 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.4 steals per game. Dating back to his All-CCC honorable mention sophomore campaign, Bradford has recorded 72 assists and 21 steals compared to just 16 turnovers over his last 19 outings.
• Khalil Chatman was noticeably hindered by a broken hand during his debut season for the Raiders in 2022-23, when he shot 38 percent on two-pointers. Back at full strength, he is up to 50 percent in that category while contributing 8.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per game
• Dating back to last season, Dominic McGarvey has scored in double figures 10 of his last 17 games and blocked multiple shots in 11 of those. He leads the Raiders at 10.8 points and is shooting 51 percent from the field over 36 career outings.

ABOUT COLLEGE OF IDAHO: Going back to the start of 2019-20, the Yotes have won 62 of their last 64 CCC games. Only two teams in the conference played them within single digits last season; SOU did it twice, exchanging the lead 13 times in the first meeting and leading until the three-minute mark of the second. The Yotes lost just one starter from that team, which didn't have anyone average more than 13 points, and will hang their hat on the same balance again. Jake O'Neil (12.2 points, 8.8 rebounds), Drew Wyman (9.7 points, 3.3 rebounds) and sixth man Johnny Radford (12.7 points, 16-of-36 3FG) are their returning all-stars; Samaje Morgan (13.3 points, 3.5 assists) is the newcomer to the starting lineup at point guard; collectively, they present a zone defense that has allowed the fewest points in the CCC every season since 2016-17. They're 61-25 all-time against SOU and have won eight consecutive matchups.

ABOUT EASTERN OREGON: The Mountaineers are adjusting to life without 2022-23 CCC Player of the Year Phillip Malatare and attempted to do so against one of the toughest nonconference schedules in the CCC. They lost to No. 4 Arizona Christian in overtime, to Montana Western by three and six points and to No. 8 Montana Tech, then got their first win in overtime against Carroll (Mont.). Newcomer Garrett Hawkes, a 6-foot-3 guard, has picked up the scoring load at 19.4 points per game. Point guard Malachi Afework adds 16.8, while Preston Chandler and Adam Orr were double-figurer scorers last season but are off to slow starts. Picked second in the CCC preseason poll after finishing in that spot last year, they're expected to be dangerous again when they round into form. They're 90-109 all-time against SOU and beat the Raiders twice last year in La Grande (including a CCC Tournament semifinal matchup), but have only won once in Ashland since 2010.