7:30 p.m. (MT) Friday – SOU at #6 College of Idaho – Live Stream/Stats
7:30 p.m. Saturday – SOU at #21 Eastern Oregon – Live Stream | Live Stats

ASHLAND – The Southern Oregon men's basketball team got all the help it could hope for last weekend and took care of business on its own end, too.

Still, a lot of work is left to be done to get back into the national conversation. The final weekend of the regular season will have major postseason implications and give the Raiders (19-9 overall, 13-5 Cascade Conference) two chances to touch-up their résumé, Friday at No. 4 College of Idaho (23-5, 17-1) – which has already clinched the regular-season title and took its only loss at SOU – and Saturday at No. 21 Eastern Oregon (20-6, 12-6). Both games tip off at 7:30 p.m. local time.

Playoff Picture: SOU will finish anywhere from second to fifth place depending on how the weekend plays out. With two games left for each team, the Raiders are tied in second place with 13th-ranked Warner Pacific and one game ahead of both Eastern Oregon and Oregon Tech. They would also hold tiebreakers over Warner Pacific and Eastern Oregon, but not Oregon Tech.

The eight-team CCC Tournament begins on Feb. 21 with the quarterfinal round, which the top four seeds will host. The conference gets two automatic bids to the NAIA Division II National Tournament: The first has been secured by C of I for winning the regular-season title, and the second will go to the tournament champion. If C of I also wins the tourney, the second bid will go to the No. 2 seed.

Last Weekend in Review: SOU capped an 8-1 CCC home slate with wins Saturday against Corban, 78-66, and Sunday against Northwest Christian, 92-86. Jordan Hunt scored 11 of his 15 points against Corban during a 15-0 run that started when the Raiders trailed 62-61 with 4:32 left, and Tate Hoffman had 17 points and 16 boards – the highest rebound total for a Raider since Jan. 5, 2013. A night later against the Beacons, the Raiders shot 55 percent from the field as Hoffman scored 23 on 10-of-15 shooting, Tristen Holmes totaled 19 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, and Ben DeSaulnier scored 19 for the second night in a row.

Briefly:
– On Monday, Hoffman became the third Raider this season to be voted CCC Player of the Week, joining senior guards Ben DeSaulnier and Kenny Meyer. Over three wins, the 6-foot-7 sophomore averaged 21.3 points and 11 rebounds, shot 26-of-40 from the field and went 10-of-19 from 3. He's scored in double figures 18 times this season.
– DeSaulnier and Meyer are both closing in on major career milestones: With 22 more points, DeSaulnier would become the second Raider to ever score 2,000 in a career. And with 15 more points, Meyer would become the first player to ever record 1,000-plus points and 300-plus assists in a career.
– Over his last nine games, Tristen Holmes has shot 55 percent from the field (41-of-74) and 47 percent from 3 (9-of-19) – up from clips of 43 percent from the field and 27 percent from 3 that he carried to that point. He's also the 16th-leading assist man in the nation at 5.3 per game.
– In conference play, SOU ranks first in field-goal percentage (49.1) and fourth in opponents' percentage (44.9). The Raiders also remain third in the NAIA in assists per game (19.3).
– Sophomore post Jordan Hunt is among the CCC leaders in points (13.3, 17th), blocks (1.3, 3rd), rebounds (6.4, 11th) and field-goal percentage (55.0, 12th).

About College of Idaho:
– Winners of 16 straight conference games since their visit to Ashland on Dec. 3, the Yotes are No. 2 in the NAIA in scoring defense (65.6) and 14th in field-goal defense (42.0). Outside of their 100-93 loss to SOU – in which the Raiders shot 57 percent and hit 11 3-pointers – no CCC team has scored more than 83 against them.
– Five Yotes average double-figure scoring, led by senior forward Roosevelt Adams' 13.9 primarily off the bench. Aziz Leeks, another senior forward, posts 12.5 points, 9.6 rebounds and 1.3 blocks.
– The Raiders are 24-50 all-time against the Yotes. They've only won twice at C of I in the last decade.

About Eastern Oregon:
– The Mountaineers ran off an eight-game winning streak in January that put them in contention, but they're 1-5 against the other teams that make up the top five in the standings. A high-scoring backcourt duo has sparked their season: Sophomore Max McCullough averages 21.4 points, freshman Jordan May averages 16.5, and between them they've hit 121 3-pointers.
– In SOU's 84-71 win over the Mounties on Dec. 2, DeSaulnier scored 22 and Josh Washington had season-highs of 19 points and nine rebounds. More importantly, the Raiders held McCullough and May to 10-of-30 combined shooting.
– The Raiders lead the all-time series, 102-84. They've lost their last two at EOU after a stretch of three straight wins in La Grande.