Joel Spear had 21 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists Sunday. (Al Case, Ashland Daily Photo) Raiders rally again to down Yotes, move back into first place 2/14/2016 5:10:00 PM SOU Sports Information ASHLAND – On Sunday afternoon at Mountain Avenue Gym, the Southern Oregon University men's basketball team erased a second-half deficit to snatch a key Cascade Conference victory from the jaws of defeat. And, no, the previous sentence was not lifted from a template – it's just a formula the 14th-ranked Raiders have utterly abused. Their latest work of self-plagiarism was a 76-72 win over College of Idaho, the 10th conference win in which they've trailed during the second half, and put them back into a first-place tie for the first time in a month. The Raiders (23-5 overall) and eighth-ranked Northwest Christian are locked up with 16-2 CCC records with two games to go in the regular season and will meet next Friday in Eugene. SOU won its first meeting with the Beacons, 80-75, on Dec. 6 in Ashland. Celebrating his senior day, SOU point guard Joel Spear helped run the Raiders' win streak to eight games with 21 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, a night after posting 12 assists. Spear scored the game-winning points with 34 seconds left when he drove the lane and was fouled shooting a jumper, breaking a 72-all tie by sinking both free throws. The Raiders had trailed 59-51 with 12 minutes left. The Coyotes (16-12, 11-8), who were the preseason favorite to win their third straight CCC championship, had two chances two answer: Dominique Jordan missed a 3-pointer with 14 seconds left, Joey Nebeker collected the offensive rebound, and Aitor Zubizarreta missed everything on a contested attempt at the bucket with two seconds left. Ben DeSaulnier, who scored 17 points, came up with the rebound and sealed the win with two free throws. He went 9-for-11 from the stripe in the game and 23-for-25 on the weekend. Nebeker scored 19 and Zubizaretta had 18 to lead the Yotes. They shot 8-of-14 from 3-point range in the first half, taking a 45-41 lead into the break, but just 5-of-22 in the second. SOU is 12-0 at home and ran the table in the regular season for the first time since 1941-42. The Raiders are assured no worse than the No. 2 seed in the upcoming CCC tournament – they'll host the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. on Feb. 24 – and would clinch the No. 1 seed with a win next Friday. Spear lifted them out of trouble again and again. Down 38-29 with five minutes left in the first half, he scored seven straight points with an and-one and a 3-pointer; and down 45-41 to start the second half, he made 3-pointers on SOU's first two possessions. When they trailed 59-51, the Raiders made their move starting with a DeSaulnier jumper and free throw, then pulled to within three when Spear stripped Nebeker and hit Tristen Holmes for a bucket at the end of a fast break. SOU finally tied it at 61-all when Jordan West drilled a 3-pointer and Holmes found Spear in the lane for a basket with 8:40 to go. The teams went back-and-forth from there, finally locking up at 72-all again when Dominique Jordan hit a triple with 46 seconds to play.