7:30 p.m. Friday – SOU at Corban | Live Stats | Stream
5 p.m. Saturday – SOU at Bushnell | Live Stats | Stream

ASHLAND – Winners of six straight overall and five straight on the road, the red-hot Southern Oregon men's basketball team will attempt to streak into the postseason and lock up second place in the Cascade Conference this weekend.

The Raiders (18-8 overall, 14-6 CCC) probably need a sweep to complete both tasks. They'll visit fifth-place Corban (17-9, 13-7) on Friday and seventh-place Bushnell (11-15, 9-11) on Saturday in their final games of the regular season.

PLAYOFF PICTURE: The eight-team CCC Tournament presented by U.S. Bank gets underway with the quarterfinal round on Feb. 21, followed by the semifinals on Feb. 24 and the championship on Feb. 27. All games tip off at 7:30 p.m. local time. The Raiders have clinched a playoff berth for the 12th consecutive postseason and can still finish anywhere from the No. 2 to the No. 5 seed.

They enter the weekend in a three-way tie for second place with Eastern Oregon and Warner Pacific, but with the toughest remaining schedule of the teams; EOU finishes at Evergreen (Wash.) and Northwest (Wash.), which have both been eliminated from postseason contention, while WPU wraps at last-place Walla Walla (Wash.) and seventh-place Lewis-Clark State (Idaho). In the event the teams remain tied, SOU would own the tiebreaker and the No. 2 seed by virtue of going 3-1 combined against EOU and WPU. The Raiders also hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over WPU, which they swept. They split the regular-season series with EOU, so that head-to-head tiebreaker would likely come down to the teams' records against teams with records of .500 or better in conference play; currently, SOU sits at 5-4 and EOU is 4-5 in those games.

A single win this weekend would give the Raiders no worse than the No. 4 seed, which would mean homecourt advantage in the CCC quarterfinals. Finish No. 2, and they'd have hosting rights through at least the semifinal round. Top-ranked College of Idaho has clinched the regular-season championship and, along with it, the CCC's first automatic bid to the 64-team NAIA National Tournament. The second automatic bid will be awarded to the CCC Tournament champion – unless C of I claims that title too, in which case it would go to the No. 2 seed.

LAST WEEK IN REVIEW: The Raiders kept rolling by blowing out Lewis-Clark State (Idaho), 84-50 on Friday, and Walla Walla (Wash.), 98-66 on saturday, to finish 8-3 at home in conference play. Junior forward Dominic McGarvey starred against LCSC, totaling 17 points and nine rebounds and scoring SOU's first nine of the second half to open up what had been a one-point game at the break. Against WWU, senior guard Tre Carlisle scored a career-high 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting with four 3-pointers, leading five Raiders in double figures.

BRIEFLY:

• With five consecutive CCC road wins, the Raiders have matched their 2019-20 team for the longest streak since they joined the conference.
• The Raiders have shot at least 50 percent from the field in five straight games, their longest string since at least 2000. On the NAIA leaderboard, they rank 19th out of 234 teams in offensive efficiency at 113.1 points per 100 possessions. Their net efficiency is 30th-best in the NAIA: They're outscoring teams by 15.6 points per 100 possessions. During their active six-game winning streak, they've defeated their opponents by an average margin of 25.3 points. They've also surrendered 70 or fewer points in nine straight games.
• Atmar Mundu is in the midst of his most efficient stretch of the season, shooting 69 percent from the field (29-of-42) and 58 percent from 3 (15-of-26) over SOU's last five games. He's scored in double figures 31 games in a row, the longest such stretch for a Raider since former NAIA Player of the Year Shea Washington (2003-06) did so in 44 straight. Mundu's average of 16.8 points is the third-highest among CCC players.
• Josh Meyer's average of 4.2 assists per game in conference play is the highest for a Raider in a full season since Tristen Holmes posted 5.3 during the 2016-17 season. He ranks fourth in that category – averaging 6.4 over his last seven games – and he's also fifth in rebounds (7.4). Tez Allen is right behind him on the assists leaderboard at 3.7. As a team, the Raiders are assisting a higher share of their made baskets (59 percent) than any team in the conference.

SOU vs. CORBAN: The Raiders held Corban to a season-worst 29 percent from the field 72-62 win on Jan. 7 in Ashland, getting a game-high 20 points from Will Graves off the bench. The Warriors had second place to themselves until last weekend, when they suffered a decisive road sweep at College of Idaho (84-63) and Eastern Oregon (81-58). They've lost four in a row against teams with winning records, but a balanced offense led by post Darius Henderson (13.8 points, 7.0 rebounds) and point guard Taylor Anderson (9.9 points, 3.7) has given them plenty for most of the season to support a defense that holds opponents to 43 percent from the field. They'll enter the weekend hungry, still in the hunt for a top-four seed. SOU is 52-46 in the series with wins in seven of the last nine matchups, but five of the last six in Salem have been decided by three points or fewer in regulation or gone to overtime.

SOU vs. BUSHNELL: The Beacons dealt the Raiders one of their toughest blows of the season on Jan. 6 in Ashland, winning 67-66 on a Trevon Richmond jumper with five seconds left after trailing by four with 42 seconds on the clock. Needing one more win or a Multnomah loss to clinch a playoff spot, they're 5-4 during the second half of CCC play. What they may lack in depth, they make up for in top-end talent with 6-foot-11 center Spencer Hoffman (16.5 points, 9.2 rebounds, 61% FG) and perennial all-star guard Stevie Schlabach (15.2 points, 51% FG). SOU is 33-28 in the series and has won its last four games in Eugene.