6 p.m. Saturday – Eastern Oregon at #13 SOU – Live Stats | Live Stream
6 p.m. Sunday – #7 The College of Idaho at #13 SOU – Live Stats | Live Stream

ASHLAND – Success in the Cascade Collegiate Conference starts with winning at home, which was never more apparent than last season when the top-four teams went a combined 40-0 on their own floors during the regular season. Considering the opponents on their way to Mountain Avenue Gym, this weekend could be especially telling in regard to where Southern Oregon University stands.

After finishing the preseason with a couple last-second losses last week, the 13th-ranked Raiders (5-3) will welcome Eastern Oregon (8-0) on Saturday and seventh-ranked preseason favorite The College of Idaho (6-3) on Sunday as CCC play begins. Both games are scheduled for 6 p.m. starts.

NAIA Top 25: SOU was No. 13 in the first NAIA Division II coaches' poll of the regular season released Tuesday, a two-spot fall from the preseason. It's the fourth time in five years the Raiders will start CCC play with a top-16 ranking, last year being the exception. College of Idaho, which was picked just ahead of the Raiders in the conference preseason poll, stayed at No. 7, and Oregon Tech fell six spots to No. 22. Warner Pacific and Northwest Christian are both receiving votes.

The Sophomore Bump: While SOU's most prominent offensive producers are all-conference guards Ben DeSaulnier and Tristen Holmes, four sophomores have been major factors for a team that ranks seventh nationally in field-goal percentage (51.5) and eighth in assists (19.5):
– Tate Hoffman has scored in double figures all but one game with averages of 14.3 points and 5.5 rebounds, up from 8.6 and 5.1 last year.
– Jordan Hunt is sixth in the NAIA at 2.1 blocks per game to go with 12.5 points and 6.5 rebounds. He's doing it on 62 percent shooting from the field and 8-of-16 from 3-point range; last year he shot 50 percent overall and 24 from downtown.
– Conor Carroll got off to a slow start, shooting 7-of-25 from 3 in SOU's first five games, but went 9-of-14 outside in the last two.
– After shooting 34 percent overall and 2-of-18 from 3 last year, backup point guard Aaron Borich has raised his average from 1.2 to 8.6 points per game. His 56-percent clip includes an 11-of-21 mark from 3, and he already has more assists (22) than he did all of last season (16).

Briefly:
– With another solid week in California, senior Ben DeSaulnier took his career point total to 1,657 and passed another Raider great, Tom Chipps (1997-2001), for third place on SOU's career scoring list. For the fourth year in a row he's shooting between 52 and 53 percent, and in 38 career 20-plus-point games he's made over half his attempts 34 times.
– Tristen Holmes notched his third career double-double last Saturday with 10 points and 10 assists against Westmont. His 5.8 assists per game rank third in the CCC, and his assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.3-to-1 is up from 1.8-to-1 last year.
– The Raiders are 36-11 at home in CCC play over the last five years. They've won seven consecutive conference openers.

About Eastern Oregon:
– Coming off a 15-5 CCC campaign and an appearance in the second round of the national tournament, the Mountaineers were picked eighth in the conference preseason poll. Though 8-0, their non-conference schedule could be charitably described as light: They have three wins against Northwest Indian, two against New Hope Christian, one against first-year program Ottawa (Ariz.) and two against Canadian schools. They've won by an average of 23 points.
– They're led by a young, sharp-shooting backcourt of sophomore Max McCullough (21.3 points) and freshman Jordan May (16.1). Together, the duo is shooting 57 percent from the field and 52 percent from 3.
– First-year coach Carlito Labarda Jr. came to EOU after four seasons as an assistant at Carroll (Mont.). He replaced Isaac Williams, who accepted the head job at Cal State Monterey Bay.
– SOU leads the all-time series, 101-84, and has won six straight matchups in Ashland.

About College of Idaho:
– The Yotes are the favorites to dethrone Northwest Christian in the CCC after last year going 15-5 in conference play and appearing in the second round of the national tournament. Fifth-year head coach Scott Garson guided them to CCC regular-season and tournament titles in his first two seasons.
– They'll ride a five-game winning streak into the weekend, having defeated Frontier foes Lewis-Clark State and Montana Tech, NCAA Div. II rival Northwest Nazarene, and Trinity International (Ill.), the current No. 10 team in the NAIA Div. II.
– Aziz Leaks, a senior forward, is averaging 12 points and 10.8 rebounds and has received the last two CCC Player of the Week awards. Roosevelt Adams leads five players averaging double figures at 13.7 points per game, but the Yotes' strength is on the defensive end, where they're holding opponents to 42-percent shooting.
– The Yotes lead the all-time matchup with SOU, 50-23, and swept last year's series. Six of the last eight games have been decided by seven points or fewer, and another was decided by nine in overtime.