LISLE, Ill. – After clinching the No. 2 seed in the Northern Athletics Conference South Division, the Benedictine University women's basketball team took on the No. 2 seed in the North Division, Concordia University-Wisconsin, falling to the Falcons 58-53 on Saturday afternoon in the Dan and Ada Rice Center.

  

Both teams traded baskets to begin the first half until a three-pointer from Karyn Conerty gave BenU (15-9, 11-6) a four-point lead. The Falcons (17-8, 15-3) rallied back to go up by two but a jumper from Tracey Walsh tied the game for the sixth time. A final second jumper gave CUW the 29-27 lead at half time.

 

 

Concordia-Wisconsin caught fire to start the second half, going on an 8-0 run to take a 10-point lead. Jenn Bren and Michelle Gaede helped cut the Eagle deficit back to four. Benedictine continued to hack at the CUW lead, eventually coming within two after a jumper from Conerty with under four minutes left, but the Falcon offense proved to be too much, taking home the 58-53 victory.

 

 

Walsh led all players with 17 points and had four rebounds while Bren scored 10 points and had six rebounds.

 

 

As a team, BenU was 20-55 from the floor (36.4 percent) and 5-19 from the three-point line. Concordia-Wisconsin edged the Eagles in rebounding, 34-33 and forced 15 Eagle turnovers on eight steals.

 

Kendall Kerns led CUW with 12 points and eight rebounds.

 

The women enter the NAC Tournament as the No. 4 seed overall, taking on the No. 5 seed Edgewood College at 7:00 p.m. in the Rice Center on Tuesday, February 22.