It's Civil War week for the Oregon State men's and women's basketball teams as the two teams prepare for their southern rivals. Wayne Tinkle's squad hosts the Oregon Ducks on Saturday while Scott Rueck's team plays the Ducks twice, with matchups in Eugene on Friday and Corvallis on Monday.

It's a big week of hoops as the two teams both have a lot on the line. The OSU men are looking to sweep the Ducks for the first time since the 2009-10 season while the OSU women will be looking to knock off the No. 3 team in the country.

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The Oregon State men's basketball team will be looking to secure a Civil War sweep for the first time since the 2009-10 season when the Beavers (15-8, 7-4 Pac-12) host Dana Altman's Oregon Ducks (15-9, 6-5). OSU and UO will meet for the 352nd time, making it the most-contested rivalry in college basketball.

The Beavers won the Pac-12 opener for both teams this season, 77-72, on Jan. 5 at Matthew Knight Arena. It was the Beavers’ first win in Eugene since 2012 and just second time ever at Matt Knight.

Tinkle had perhaps his best performance of the season, as he fought through an ankle-sprain en-route to a strong all-around game with 28 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

Following a home stand that saw OSU drop a clunker of a game against Stanford (83-60) on Thursday, and bounce back with a much-needed 79-71 win over Cal on Sunday, OSU is looking to play much better basketball on Saturday.

Beavers' head coach Wayne Tinkle sees the Civil War as an opportunity for the Beavers to go out and defend home court in front of a raucous crowd.

"It's a great rivalry and it's one of the most long standing in the country " Tinkle said. "But above all that, it's about us defending home court and continuing to build momentum down the stretch. It's going to be a heck of a game and a packed environment."

Added Tres Tinkle: "The Civil War is always a battle. This game always amps everyone up an extra notch."

Despite the Beavers currently sitting in a tie for second in the conference, they've been largely inconsistent. After a road-sweep of Colorado and Utah, the Beavers followed it up with a puzzling loss against the Cardinal where they got down big early and couldn't climb out of a hole.

One of the reasons for the Beavers' inconsistent play has been its defense. After being one of the better defensive teams early in the season, OSU has regressed in conference play, specifically in the past few games. The Beavers have allowed opponent point totals of 72, 83, and 71 in their last three games, below its season average of 69.5.

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"We were one of the top defensive teams early in the year and we know that we can be better," Tres Tinkle said. "We've got to get better communication from our back line and individually we have to pressure the ball more."

Additionally, the Beavers haven't been good at limiting opponents' shots from the field in conference as they have allowed 45.4 percent shooting, ranking ninth in the conference.

"It's mind boggling," Tinkle said. "We were really good defensively for awhile. At times it's a lack of focus on both ends. The things we work on in practice, don't always translate to games. Guys are a little worn down mentally and physically this time of year and that's why we feel this long week will allow us to recover."

Tres Tinkle, who needs 13 points to reach 1,500 in his career, sees the Civil War as an opportunity for the Beavers to solidify their spot in the Pac-12 hierarchy and build momentum into the stretch run of the season.

"It would be a huge momentum boost for us because of how we've been playing as of late," Tres Tinkle said. "We've shown glimpses, but we've also been out of character at times. A win would give us a big boost heading into the last half of the season."

Speaking of Tinkle's ankle-sprain, which has kept him at less than 100 percent in the weeks following the injury, Wayne Tinkle noted that at this point, Tres is going to have some lingering pain due to playing through the injury.

"He really needed a month off (after the injury), and there's just no time to do that," Wayne Tinkle said. "I've been impressed with what he's been able to give us, but it's unfortunate. He's a tough kid and he'll find a way to give us his best with what he's got."

The Ducks come to town sporting a two-game win streak as Oregon took care of business against Stanford and Cal last week, winning both matchups by double-digits.

They've been bolstered in the past several weeks by the return of 6-foot-9 shot-blocking dynamo Kenny Wooten, a sophomore forward who really drives the Oregon defense.

After OSU allowed 83 points to the Cardinal just days earlier, Oregon nearly cut that point total in half with tremendous defense.

Wooten matched his career high in blocks with seven last Sunday versus Stanford as the Ducks allowed a season-low in points (46) to the Cardinal.

The Beavers know they'll have their hands full with an Oregon team that is gaining momentum and confidence on a weekly basis. Being the aggressor early has alluded the Beavers in home games against Washington and Stanford in recent weeks, but Tinkle feels it's the key to success against the Ducks.

"We have to come out and be the aggressor," Wayne Tinkle said. "It's easy to say and it's a simple concept, but we have to carry it to the court."

The Oregon State women's basketball team faces its toughest two-game stretch of the season this weekend as the No. 9 Beavers (20-4, 10-2 Pac-12) play a pair of games against the No. 3 Oregon Ducks (23-1, 12-0).

The two teams will square off Friday night in Matthew Knight Arena before the Beavers host the Ducks on Monday night in a ESPN 2 nationally televised contest.

After suffering a tough 66-41 loss at the hands of No. 11 Stanford last Friday, the Beavers bounced back with a 82-74 victory over the Cal Bears on Sunday.

While Oregon State head coach Scott Rueck wasn't pleased with the Beavers out of character game against the Cardinal, he lauded the effort and resiliency from the team against Cal.

"We never got comfortable in the Stanford game," Rueck said. "We really didn't approach it correctly from a mindset standpoint. We weren't aggressive, we were hopeful, and you can't do that against a good team. We turned that into a gritty performance on Sunday and responded to the adversity completely differently."

The Ducks present challenges in every way as they have been rolling like a freight train, sporting a NCAA best 16 game win streak, capped off most recently with a 88-48 drubbing of No. 11 Stanford.

"Stanford has never lost like that before," Rueck said. "Stanford never got traction in that game and it was a great performance by Oregon. The margin was a bit surprising."

Led by the dynamic all-around play of Sabrina Ionescu, the low-post efficiency from Ruthy Hebard, and the outside shooting from Satou Sabally, the Ducks sport an offense that scores at will against opponents en-route to an NCAA leading 90.2 points per game.

An interesting storyline to watch in this contest is just how many three pointers are attempted and made for the two teams this weekend. Oregon (43.8%) and Oregon State (41.7%) rank No. 1 and No. 3, respectively, in the NCAA in three-point percentage.

The entire Oregon starting five averages double-figure scoring as Ionescu (19.3 points per game), Sabally (18), Hebard (16.6), Erin Boley (12.9), and Maite Cazorla (10.3) spearhead the nations best offense.

"They have five scorers on the floor at all times and have threats from every position," OSU senior guard Katie McWilliams said. "We have to identify each players' tendencies and take them away."

Junior guard Mikayla Pivec, who leads the team with 8.9 rebounds per game, knows the Beavers will need to bring their very best against the Ducks.

"We will need to play the best we've played on defense this year," Pivec said. "They have a whole bunch of weapons and you can't lay off anyone because everyone is a strength all the way around. It really takes a team defense to slow them down."

While Oregon head coach Kelly Graves is just 1-7 in his career against Rueck, he's never had a team this talented.

"Oregon is extremely talented and now they're so experienced," Rueck said. "You saw the efficiencies that they played at this past weekend and it just spoke to that. This is no longer the team of two years ago that was still figuring it out, or even last year figuring it out, this team knows exactly where to go with the ball."

What will it take for an Oregon State win or wins this week?

"It's going to take a really great, focused effort where you're playing your very best," Rueck said. "We have to minimize our mistakes, go to our strengths regularly, and be highly efficient on both ends of the floor."

According to ESPN's Charlie Creme, the Beavers are projected to be a four-seed in the Albany Regional. A slight changed occurred from last weeks' projection as the Beavers remained in the Albany Regional, but dropped down to a four-seed.

However, in the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee's first reveal of the nation’s top 16 seeds, the Beavers were tabbed as the 12th best team, and the last No. 3 seed.

By way of being a top-four seed, the Beavers would host the first and second round games in Gill Coliseum.

Here's a look at the complete Bracketology from Creme for this week...