LISLE, Ill. – After an exciting first-round victory over the Eagles of Edgewood, the Benedictine women's basketball team (16-9, 11-6) travels to Milwaukee, Wis. on Thursday night in hopes of upsetting the No. 1 seeded Wisconsin Lutheran College (23-3, 16-2). 

 

Last year our Eagles, the No. 4 seed, were able to knock out the No. 1 seed, Concordia Wisconsin, in the second round. They hope that history repeats itself tomorrow.

 

In their first round victory over Edgewood College on Tuesday night, Colleen Forkin and Tracey Walsh led the team in scoring, each chipping in 12 points. Center Jenn Bren (5-14) added 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds. She also tallied two huge blocks. Point guard Lidia Arias snagged five rebounds, scored three points (1-4), and tallied both a steal and a block.

 

BenU's bench came out strong, collectively scoring 21 points and shooting over 50 percent from the field (8-15). Freshman Michelle Gaede scored seven points of her own on 3-5 shooting from the field. Jill Lipman scored six points on perfect 2-2 shooting from behind the arc. She also grabbed four rebounds. Senior Sam Hathaway added four points (1-1) and two assists. The Eagle's bench was responsible for only one turnover the entire game.

 

In the Eagle's first game against WLC this season, the Crusaders crushed BenU 78-51 shooting 48.3 percent from the field to the Eagles' 29.6 percent. The Crusaders also out-rebounded the Eagles 46-29. Walsh scored a team-high 17 points (4-8). Arias tallied six points (3-7), five rebounds, and three steals. However, as a whole, the Eagles had 16 turnovers to only five assists on the game.

 

Wisconsin Lutheran dominates the NAC in scoring margin by out-scoring their opponents by an average of 14.6 points a game. This huge statistic has led them to 23 victories on the season. They also lead the NAC in field goal percentage (44.5 percent), rebounding margin (+8.5), and assists per game (16).

 

The Crusaders will certainly be a tough to team to beat on their home court, but our Eagles are up for the challenge. Perhaps being in the same position last season has given BenU the experience it needs to pull off a difficult, road, tournament victory. The teams tip-off at 7:00 p.m. For more information on the NAC Tournament, visit www.northernac.org.