ASHLAND – Southern Oregon point guard Ashley Claussen has been on a tear to start the 2015-16 season, and she was rewarded Monday with the Cascade Conference Red Lion women's basketball player of the week award for the first time in her career.

The 5-foot-6 senior from Scotts Valley, Calif., has led the 16th-ranked Raiders to a 5-0 start minus injured CCC preseason player of the year Carly Meister. Last weekend, she helped the Raiders to a pair of wins at Oregon Tech's Midland Empire Insurance Classic – first erupting for a career-high 28 points in a 98-55 win over Cal Maritime, then going for 14 points and five rebounds in a 77-52 win over William Jessup.

Claussen has scored 20 or more in four of five games for an average of 21.8 points on 53-percent shooting, including a 12-of-32 mark from 3-point range. She also averages team-highs of 5.2 assists and 2.8 steals to go with 3.2 rebounds.

Prior to this season, she'd scored 20-plus three times in her career. She's up to 893 career points and 424 assists – the latter number being the third-highest in SOU history.

Claussen and the Raiders are off until a Dec. 1 nonleague game at Simpson. They open Cascade Conference play Dec. 5 and 6 against Corban and Northwest Christian at Mountain Avenue Gym on the Ashland High School campus.