Off to a fast start, the Benedictine University men's basketball team will play two games during Thanksgiving week. The 2-0 Eagles will play at national-ranked Wheaton College on Tuesday night and host Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference opponent Edgewood College on Saturday afternoon.
Benedictine's two wins have come in impressive fashion. On November 15, the Eagles upset fourth-ranked Illinois Wesleyan 61-60 to open the season at the Dan and Ada Rice Center, holding the national powerhouse to just 39% shooting. On November 22, BenU topped Milwaukee School of Engineering on the road 62-61, with
Tahron Harvey hitting a three-point shot with three seconds left to play.
Tuesday: at Wheaton College (2-2), 7:00 p.m.
Ranked 18th in the d3hoops.com preseason poll, the Thunder are coming off of a 2013-2014 season that consisted of a CCIW Tournament Championship and two wins in the NCAA Division III Tournament. Wheaton is off to a 2-2 start this season, with wins over Defiance College and Franklin College. On Saturday, the Thunder fell to ninth-ranked Washington University in St. Louis 73-69.
Benedictine has been stout defensively thus far, but Wheaton poses a stiff test. Led by All-CCIW Second Team guard Brayden Teuscher's 21 points per game, the Thunder average 77 points a contest. The Eagles and Thunder have not met since 2007, with Wheaton winning 73-57 in Wheaton.
Saturday: vs. Edgewood College (1-2, 1-0), 4:15 p.m.
Benedictine opens the home NACC schedule on Saturday when Edgewood College comes to Lisle. The Madison, Wisconsin school was the surprise of last season's NACC Tournament, as after qualifying as a seven-seed with a 9-11 NACC record, Edgewood upset the tournament's second (MSOE) and third (Lakeland College) seeds to advance to the conference tournament, where the team fell to top-seeded Marian University.
Thus far, Edgewood has played three games, two of which have gone to overtime. The team opened the season at home with an overtime loss to Loras College on November 15. Three days later, Edgewood fell to UW-Oshkosh at home 74-56. On Saturday, the team opened up the NACC season with an 85-80, double overtime victory at Wisconsin Lutheran College.
Since the NACC was formed in 2006, Edgewood holds a 9-5 advantage over BenU in the series. Last season, the two teams split, each winning at home. In five career games against Edgewood, Benedictine center
Tim McGinty has averaged 9.8 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. He scored 23 points in last season's matchup at Edgewood.
