TAYLORSVILLE, Utah (February 13, 2018) - The No. 6 Salt Lake Community College Bruins have stared down a series of challenges throughout the 2017-18 season, with another impressive challenge coming this week.

SLCC hosts a pair of Scenic West Athletic Conference games, games that will go a long way towards figuring out the league standings. The Bruins host the College of Southern Idaho Thursday, then host a critical rematch with in-state foe USU Eastern Saturday. Both games will provide answers in the SWAC, whether it is clarity or confusion in the league standings.

Starting with Thursday's 7:30 p.m. matchup with Southern Idaho, the Bruins will look to continue a strong run of defensive efficiency. Salt Lake limited the Golden Eagles to 64 points in a January 11 home victory, while surrendering 99 points in a double-overtime thriller in Twin Falls - both of them SLCC victories. Both victories featured strong offensive performances from Salt Lake.

Southern Idaho is 23-4 on the season and 6-2 in the Scenic West standings. Its only league losses are to Salt Lake. 

SLCC coach Todd Phillips said it will be a challenge to secure a third-consecutive victory over Southern Idaho.

"CSI is always a great game," he said. "We will need to execute on both ends of the floor. We are a long, athletic team and we will need to guard the three-point ball and keep them off the boards."

For the first time this season, Salt Lake will have revenge on its mind as it hosts USU Eastern. The Eagles have been the only team to defeat the Bruins, an 83-79 loss on Jan. 27, and also took SLCC to three overtimes to open the league season. USU Eastern is sitting at 15-11 overall and just 4-5 in league standings.

Phillips said Salt Lake will need to continue to improve to find success against USU Eastern.

"We feel we are starting to play some of our best basketball," he said. "We have been shooting it much more consistently the last couple weeks. We need to continue to share the ball and take the right shots."

The Bruins maintain a 1.5 game lead over Southern Idaho, with a four-game lead over USU Eastern in the league standings. A win over CSI would effectively lock up the Scenic West regular season title for Salt Lake.

Thursday's game against Southern Idaho is scheduled to tip at 7:30 p.m. inside the Lifetime Activities Center, with live stats available at www.slccbruins.com. A live stream for the game can be found at live.ksl.com. Saturday's game against USU Eastern will start at 5:00 p.m., with both live streaming and live stats available.