After a week in which the Eagles dropped two games, the Benedictine University men's basketball team (1-4, 0-1) will play three Northern Athletics Conference games this week. The team will take on defending conference champion and rival Aurora on Tuesday night (7:00 p.m.) on the road, Concordia-Chicago (7:00 p.m.) at home on Thursday night , and Concordia-Wisconsin (5:00 p.m.) at home on Saturday evening.

One of Benedictine's two losses last week came against nearby North Central College, who came into the contest ranked 22nd in the d3hoops.com poll. The Cardinals started the game on the 20-6 run and BenU never recovered, falling 69-55 despite 11 points off the bench from freshman point guard Tahron Harvey. Benedictine's other loss came at the hands of conference foe Edgewood, as Edgewood erased a double-digit deficit to win 76-73. Junior post player Tim McGinty led BenU with 23 points in that matchup, raising his scoring average to a team-high 16.4 points per game.

Tuesday's matchup against Aurora (3-2, 1-0) presents a big challenge for the Eagles. Not only is it a rivalry game in what figures to be a loud Thornton Gymnasium, but the Spartans look like a very strong team once again. After winning last year's conference tournament, Aurora scheduled tough non-conference opponents in nationally-ranked Illinois Wesleyan and North Central. While AU fell to Illinois Wesleyan, the Spartans defeated North Central 91-82. The Spartans followed up on the big win by earning win number 1,000 in program history, defeating NACC foe Concordia-Wisconsin 88-80 to open up conference play.

Aurora had the upper hand in the rivalry last year, defeating Benedictine all three times the two squads matched up a season ago. After defeating BenU by 14 at the Dan and Ada Rice Center in mid-January, the Eagles fell by 10 two weeks later in Aurora in a game that featured 102 combined points scored in the first half. The two teams then met in the opening round of the conference tournament, with Aurora winning 87-67. However, in the previous season, the Eagles won all three matchups against the Spartans, including a 86-83 victory in the first round of the conference tournament.

On Thursday, Benedictine will square off against a Concordia-Chicago (1-3, 0-2) team that has struggled out of the gate. After falling in an exhibition at Division I and nationally-ranked Connecticut, the Cougars have dropped conference games to Rockford and Lakeland, while splitting non-conference matchups against Bethany Lutheran (76-72 win) and Robert Morris University-Chicago (80-61 loss).

The Eagles had success last season against a CUC team that went just 4-21 overall and 4-12 in conference. BenU defeated them twice: 51-47 on the road last November behind a corner three from McGinty with 39 seconds left, and a 78-47 win at home in January. However, the Cougars are scoring the basketball a bit better this season, 74.2 points per game compared to just 65 a season ago. Junior forward Nat Pearson (17.5 ppg) and freshman guard Mike Walmer (17.0 ppg) both are top 10 in the NACC in scoring, while senior forward Marcus Elston is second in rebounding at 10.0 rebounds per game.

Saturday's matchup against Concordia-Wisconsin (1-3, 1-1) marks the first time since the 2011-2012 the Falcons will visit the Dan and Ada Rice Center. That's significant because the December 3, 2011 contest was one of the most thrilling victories in recent memory for Benedictine. With BenU down by one, then-freshman Michael Woolf drove the length of the floor to make a contested lay-up, putting the Eagles ahead with just two seconds left. Concordia-Wisconsin missed a three-pointer at the buzzer, and Benedictine ended a 19-game conference winning streak for the Falcons that covered almost two full calendar years.

Last year, however, the Falcons had more success against Benedictine, winning 61-53 in Mequon, Wisconsin. It was one of 12 conference victories for the Falcons in a season where the team finished 18-9 overall and earned the fourth seed in the conference tournament. While off to a slower start this season, CUW is still expected to be a solid team and was picked to finish sixth in the NACC pre-season poll, one spot behind Benedictine.

All of this week's games will be broadcasted at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/benu.portal#. Tuesday's road game will be audio only, while the Thursday and Saturday contest will also have live video.