The Benedictine University men's basketball team has one game remaining before heading to Puerto Rico after Christmas. Benedictine will host nearby North Central College on Wednesday night in the Dan and Ada Rice Center.
BenU (5-3, 4-2) is coming off of a close loss at home to Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference opponent Lakeland College, falling 64-61. Lakeland held the Eagles to just 37.9% shooting and 3-for-22 from beyond the arc, with
Tahron Harvey missing a three from the top of the key at the buzzer.
Tim McGinty led the Eagles with 17 points and a season-high 11 rebounds in the defeat. Benedictine is in a tie for fourth place with Edgewood College (4-5, 4-2) in the 11-team NACC, trailing Marian University (6-2, 5-0), Aurora University (7-3, 5-1), and Lakeland (7-1, 4-1) in the conference standings.
Wednesday: vs. # 16 North Central College (7-1)
Members of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, the Cardinals are currently ranked 16th in the
www.d3hoops.com Top 25 poll. With CCIW play not beginning until after the new year, North Central has gone 7-1 in eight non-conference games, losing its first game of the season last Friday against #10 Dickinson College in a neutral site game. The Cardinals have played one NACC school this season, defeating Aurora 67-63 back on November 25. BenU fell to Aurora in Lisle 76-69 on December 2.
North Central will be the second ranked opponent and third CCIW school BenU will face this season. Benedictine opened the season with a 61-60 upset win over #4 Illinois Wesleyan University (now ranked fifth) in Lisle, but lost at Wheaton College 86-73 on November 25. North Central has won the Battle of Maple/Chicago Ave. in each of the last three years, with the Eagles last defeating the Cardinals during its conference championship season in 2010-11. Harvey led the Eagles with 11 points in last year's contest, which was won by NCC 69-55 in Naperville.
