7:30 p.m. Saturday – Eastern Oregon at #14 SOU – Live Stats | Live Stream
3 p.m. Sunday – College of Idaho at #14 SOU – Live Stats | Live Stream

ASHLAND – Not since the 1941-42 season has the Southern Oregon University men's basketball team gotten through the regular season with a perfect home record. A change in venue is all it's taken to make a run at another one.

Ashland High's Mountain Avenue Gym has been unkind to SOU's first eight visitors (as was Riehm Arena in the first two games of the season), and the 14th-ranked Raiders (21-5 overall, 14-2 Cascade Conference) will attempt to put the "home"-court advantage to use twice more this weekend. At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, they'll try to avenge a Jan. 16 loss at Eastern Oregon (14-13, 9-8) against the Mountaineers. And at 3 p.m. Sunday, the fourth-place and defending CCC champion College of Idaho Coyotes (15-11, 10-7) will visit on SOU's senior day.

Still a game back of first-place and eighth-ranked Northwest Christian (22-4, 15-1), the Raiders will also be doing some scoreboard watching when NCU visits third-place Warner Pacific (17-8, 12-4) on Saturday. If NCU wins, SOU needs to win just one of its final four games to clinch no worse than second place in the CCC; and if WPC wins, the Raiders could pull into a first-place tie going into next Friday's matchup at NCU.

Tuesday in Review: Oregon Tech put forth its most complete performance of the season on Jan. 5 to end an eight-game losing streak against SOU by a score of 67-51. The Owls were locked in again on Tuesday, going 13-of-29 from 3-point range, but more clutch efforts in a season full of them got the Raiders back on top with an 88-84 decision. Joel Spear flirted with a triple-double (16 points, 9 rebounds, 9 assists) and Gary Melvin erupted for a career-high 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting, lifting the Raiders to their ninth second-half comeback win in conference play. The Raiders shot 56 percent from the field, going over 50 for the fourth time in six games, and also committed just five turnovers – their lowest total in two years.

Quick Hits:
– The Raiders have clinched a top-four seed in the conference tournament and, therefore, a home game in the quarterfinals on Feb. 24. Tipoff will be at 7 p.m.
– Ben DeSaulnier and Jordan West are threatening to become the second Raider duo to ever score 500-plus points in the same season (Eric Thompson and Kyle Tedder, 2012-13). DeSaulnier, who on Tuesday scored 11 of his 17 in the second half, is at 461 points and ranks ninth in the CCC in scoring (17.7), 11th in field-goal percentage (53.3) and second in 3-point percentage (47.4). West is up to 424 points after scoring 18 against the Owls and in CCC play ranks 14th in scoring (16.3), 14th in field-goal percentage (51.4) and ninth in blocks (0.8).
– Spear again strengthened his CCC player-of-the-year case on Tuesday with the near-triple-double. He remains the only player in the conference averaging 10-5-5 and is among the league leaders in points (13.3, 24th), assists (5.8, 2nd), rebounds (5.9, 18th), steals (1.6, 9th), field-goal percentage (52.1, 13th), 3-point percentage (45.3, 4th), blocks (0.7, 14th) and minutes played (32.2, 7th).
– Besides his 10.2 points on a team-best shooting clip of 63.4 and 5.6 rebounds, Clay Sierra is still providing intangibles for SOU: he had four of the team's five steals on Tuesday and in conference action ranks seventh in steals (1.6) and third in blocks (1.2).
– SOU leads the nation in assists per game (20.2), is second in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.9) and eighth in team field-goal percentage (49.8).

About Eastern Oregon: With three NCAA Div. I transfers in the backcourt – Trell Washington (19.3 points, 12.6 rebounds, 4.7 assists), Case Rada (16.1 points, 74 3-pointers) and Tate De Laveaga (8.9 points) – the Mountaineers have proven to be one of the most volatile teams in the CCC. In their 74-64 win over SOU, however, 6-foot-10 senior center Kalvin Johanson posed the biggest problem for the Raiders with 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting. He's averaging 12.3 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.1 blocks… EOU had lost five straight in the series with SOU until that win and has dropped four straight in Ashland. SOU leads the all-time series, 99-83.

About College of Idaho: After losing four starters from their CCC championship team, the Coyotes have had to rely heavily on two players offensively: Joey Nebeker (21.2 points, 6.5 rebounds), a second-year transfer from Boise State, and Aitor Zubizarreta (17.2 points, 6.2 rebounds), a first-year transfer from University of Portland. They enter the weekend having lost three of their last five… SOU won the first meeting in Caldwell, 85-79, behind West's 21 points. The Raiders, who met C of I in last year's CCC tournament championship game, trail the all-time series, 48-22.