With ten Northern Athletics Conference games in the books, the Benedictine University women's basketball team is now halfway through its conference schedule. This week, BenU will start the second half of the NACC slate with two games. The team will take on Aurora at home on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. at the Dan and Ada Rice Center, and travel to Milwaukee to face Wisconsin Lutheran at 3:15 p.m. on Saturday.

Benedictine (6-9, 6-4) sits at seventh place in the NACC standings after splitting a pair of home conference games this past week. On Wednesday, the Eagles fell 76-69 at the hands of a much improved MSOE team. BenU followed that up with a 65-44 win over Marian on Saturday, giving BenU a season sweep of the Sabres. Sophomore forward Briana Hamilton (9.9p, 4.9r) had back-to-back double-digit scoring games, tallying 27 points and 11 rebounds in the two games. Senior guard Michelle Gaede (4.3p, 2.5r) had her best game of the season on Wednesday (15 points, six rebounds, seven assists) and is averaging 9.7 points over the last three contests. Also, Junior guard Vincenza Ranallo (12.1p, 6.3r) had a 14-rebound performance on Saturday, the most any player has had in a game all season.

Even though BenU sits in seventh place, the team is just half a game behind Aurora and Edgewood for fifth place and one game behind Alverno and MSOE for third place. The Eagles will get a chance at one of those teams on Tuesday night when Aurora (8-8, 7-4) visits Lisle. The Spartans are one of the most improved teams in the NACC under first-year Head Coach Brittany Carper, as the team finished 4-13 in conference play a season ago and missed the conference tournament. Aurora began the season 1-6, but has gone 7-2 since.

Benedictine met the Spartans earlier this season, winning at Aurora 63-54 on December 4 during the middle of the Spartans' 1-6 start. Junior guard Meghan Novak led the Eagles with 20 points in that game, while Vincenza Ranallo added 14 points and seven rebounds. The Eagles have won the last five meetings of the rivalry and hold a 12-11 record against the Spartans since the 2002-2003 season.

On Saturday, the Eagles will head to Milwaukee to face a tough Wisconsin Lutheran (14-1, 11-1) team. The Warriors have won the last three conference regular season and tournament championships, holding a 70-4 conference record since the 2010-2011 season. Wisconsin Lutheran also possesses what is by far the conference's stingiest defense, allowing just 50.6 points per game and holding opponents to a 32.3% shooting percentage. The next closest total in each category is Concordia-Wisconsin's 56.9 points per game allowed and Rockford's 35.9% opponent's field goal percentage.

Benedictine fell to Wisconsin Lutheran three times last season: 70-62 at home, 69-42 on the road, and 69-47 again on the road in the semi-finals of the conference tournament. The Eagles and Warriors were scheduled to meet back on January 8 in Lisle, but that game was moved to February 6 because of weather conditions.