EUGENE, Ore. – The Northwest Christian University women's basketball team will open up the 2016 post-season in uncharted territory on Tuesday night, hosting a first-round game in the CCC tournament for the first time in school history. Not uncharted, however, is the NCU rivalry against their opponent, Corban University.
 
Corban owns a 16-9 lead in the all-time series, but in recent years the tide has turned towards Eugene with NCU winning six of the last nine games. The teams are separated by just 60 miles. The past three games have been separated by a total of just five points.
 
It has been an oddly road-team dominated series with the traveling team earning the victory in each of the last eight games. This included back-to-back wins last season. NCU claimed a ten-point victory over the Warriors in the regular season finale in 2015 and turned around three days later to win a quarterfinal meeting by just one point.
 
The teams split the series again this year and once again they will face off in the first round of the tournament, with both teams knowing that if they do not win it will mark the end of the 2015-2016 campaign.
 
Corban enters the game with a 16-13 overall record and an 11-9 record in CCC play. Northwest Christian boasts an 18-11 overall record with a 13-7 mark in CCC action. Both teams enter Tuesday night's contest losers of two-straight games after both dropping both contests over the weekend. Corban owns an 8-7 record in road games on the year, while NCU comes into Tuesday with a 9-6 record in games played at home.
 
Junior Niki Duncan has quickly become a fan of playing against the Warriors. In her two games against Corban this season she has averaged 21.5 points per game and shot 10-for-19 from three-point range. Corban's Jade Lowery probably feels the same way about facing the Beacons as she averaged 23.5 points in the regular season meetings, shooting 50% from the field.
 
The winner of Tuesday's game will advance to the semifinals, which will be played on Friday night at 7 p.m. The match-ups will be determined after tonight's quarterfinals as the teams are re-seeded for the next round.