EUGENE, Ore.  – The Northwest Christian men's basketball team will begin their CCC tournament title defense tonight when they host Corban University in the quarterfinal round of the Cascade Conference Tournament, presented by U.S. Bank.
 
As the regular-season champions, the Beacons own the No. 1 seed and have home court advantage throughout the tournament. They take on No. 8 seed Corban, who the beat twice in the regular season. Win, and the Beacons will stay home for a semifinal clash against the lowest remaining seed on Saturday evening. Another victory would send the Beacons to their third CCC tournament title game in four years on Tuesday.
 
No matter what happens this week, one thing is already guaranteed: NCU will be back in Branson for the NAIA tournament next month. As the regular season champion, the Beacons have garnered the first of two automatic berths awarded to the Cascade Conference.
 
There is still a lot on the line for the Beacons who are currently ranked No. 6 in the NAIA and have their eyes on one of four No. 1 seeds for the NAIA tournament when they are announced next Wednesday. The team looks to remain undefeated at home in 2016-2017 and extend a 16-game winning streak inside the Morse Event Center.
 
Also at stake is the newly named "Danny Miles Tournament Trophy, in recognition of the Hall of Fame coach from Oregon Tech who's career spanned 45 years coaching the Hustlin' Owls and earned three NAIA Men's Basketball national championships. Miles retired at the end of the 2015-2016 season.
 
The first task at hand will be taking on familiar foe Corban, NCU's Willamette Valley rival from Salem. The Warriors come into the game reeling, having dropped five of their final six games in the regular season. When January ended, Corban was in position for a possible fifth seed for the tourney but they ended the year tied for seventh and lost a tie-breaker with Warner Pacific to settle for the last seed.
 
The Warriors rank fifth in the CCC in both scoring (87.2) and defense (79.2 ppg allowed). Junior Chris Martin, the league's most dangerous sixth-man, leads the team with 14.4 points per game with zero starts to his credit. Sophomore Joel Johnson and junior AJ Monterossi provide a difficult inside-out dynamic and both players average 12.9 ppg. Johnson is the top shooter in NAIA Division II, hitting 69.3% of his shots. Monterossi was a first-team All-CCC selection last year and has 116 assists on the season.
 
The Beacons claimed an 82-77 home victory against Corban back in December and followed that with an 83-71 win in Salem in January. Historically, Northwest Christian and Corban have done battle 58 times, but this will be the first clash in any post-season action. The Warriors hold a 42-16 lead in the all-time series which dates back to 1987, but NCU has won seven of the last eight meetings since Luke Jackson took over as NCU's head coach.
 
Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 pm tonight.