ASHLAND – By steering Southern Oregon away from a deflating loss and toward a 68-67 upset of No. 20 Oregon Tech, Raiders guard Gio Evanson put his stamp on the rivalry in a classic finish Tuesday night at Lithia Motors Pavilion.

Evanson dribbled into a contested, quick-release 3-pointer that went down with 12 seconds remaining, putting SOU in front for the first time since the 10-minute mark of the second half. The Owls went on the other end to all-star forward Jackson Cooper, whose first attempt in the lane was denied by Evanson, second attempt was blocked from behind in traffic by Brady Rice, and third attempt got off his fingertips just before the final buzzer but sailed wide of the rim.

SOU (10-7 overall, 7-2 Cascade Conference) forced a second-place tie with the Owls (12-5, 7-2) and stopped a six-game losing streak in the series. OIT had won its last five CCC contests in Ashland.

The Raiders' shooting luck turned just in time to end the drought. Trailing 65-59 with two minutes left after a pair of Cooper free throws, they'd been 6-of-22 from 3-point range until making three in a row to hit the finish line on a 9-2 run.

Evanson knocked down the first in the corner off a feed from Elijah Jackson. Two more Cooper free throws then brought OIT's lead to 67-62, but Jackson cut it to two by converting another from deep with a minute remaining. Joe Juhala's stout defense down low on Cooper gave the Raiders the stop they needed, and Evanson took advantage.

Evanson scored all 10 of his points over the final nine minutes on 4-of-6 shooting, also distributing four assists. Bryce Dyer went 5-of-6 with a pair of 3-pointers to lead the Raiders with 13 and was partially responsible for holding Cooper – the CCC's leader in assists and fourth-leading scorer – to 7-of-21 accuracy from the field.

Cooper still tallied 23 points and seven assists, hitting 9-of-10 at the free-throw line. Until the last couple minutes, he dominated the second half with 17.

Rice stepped up with 10 points and six rebounds. The Raiders got more good work from forwards Jace Anderson (8 points, 4-of-6, 4 rebounds, 2 steals) and Luke Wagstaff (9 points, 4 rebounds), who combined for 13 in the first half to give SOU a 40-35 lead at the break.

The Raiders trailed by as many as 10 early. They kept the Owls from breaking away late by limiting them to one second-half 3-pointer.

Dakota Reber added 17 points for the Owls and Jackson scored nine with three assists for the Raiders.

SOU wraps up the first half of conference play Thursday at 10th-place Warner Pacific. The Raiders and Owls are a half-game back of first-place Eastern Oregon and a half-game in front of Lewis-Clark State.