At the halfway point of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference regular season, the Benedictine University women's basketball team sits in a tie atop the standings at 9-1. This week, BenU will hosts two teams: its biggest rival, Aurora University, on Tuesday, and 9-1 Wisconsin Lutheran on Saturday.
 
The Eagles won two NACC contests on the road this past week, defeating fourth-place Milwaukee School of Engineering and seventh-place Marian. Against MSOE, the Eagles held the Raiders to just nine first-half points en route to a 58-46 victory. At Marian, BenU was victorious 63-51 behind 51% shooting. Meghan Novak scored a total of 38 points between the two contests, while Nicole Botich recorded double-doubles in both games.
  
On Tuesday, BenU hosts an Aurora team which has vastly improved from the start of the season. After beginning the season 0-7, the Spartans have played .500 basketball since December 9 and put together a three-game winning streak between December 9 and December 16. Since the three-game streak, the Spartans have gone 2-5.
 
Aurora's improvement has coincided with the play of Bethany Dorrington. An All-NACC First Team player last season, Dorrington did not play in any of Aurora's first seven losses. Since returning on December 9, she's averaged 14.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game while logging 36.1 minutes per game (second in the NACC in conference games). She has also played all 40 minutes in three different games this season.
 
Head Coach Kristen Gillespie has never lost to Aurora, as the Eagles have won all seven meetings with the Spartans since Gillespie took over the program in 2011. One of those victories came back on December 3 of this season, as the Eagles won 56-48 at Aurora behind 24 points and 12 rebounds from Botich. Aurora's last win in the series came back in the 2010-11 season, defeating the Eagles 63-58 in Aurora. The Spartans have not won in Lisle since the 2003-04 season.
  
Benedictine and Wisconsin Lutheran are tied for the NACC lead. The two teams will square off for the final time this regular season on Hall of Fame day on Saturday at the Dan and Ada Rice Center. The Warriors have built the longest winning streak in the conference, having won 10 consecutive games since falling at Lakeland College on December 3. WLC has won the last four NACC Regular Season and Tournament Championships and was unanimously picked in this year's preseason conference poll to repeat for a fifth time.
 
Wisconsin Lutheran has players all over the NACC's leaderboards. Senior post Kristen Schultz, the reigning NACC Defensive Player of the Year as well as an All-Region and All-NACC player, leads the conference in both scoring (20.1 per game), rebounding (14.5 per game), and blocks (3.6 per game). In eight career games against the Eagles, she has averaged 13.1 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 2.6 blocks per game. Lutheran also boasts four of the conference's Top 10 players in field goal percentage: Maggie Gartner (64.4%, first), Schultz (53.9%, sixth), Christel Frey (50%, eighth), and Caitlin Knueppel (48.4%, tenth). Knueppel also leads the NACC in three-point percentage (52.3%) and is followed by her teammate Karisa Pedersen in that category (48.4%, second).
 
Wisconsin Lutheran has won ten consecutive meetings against the Eagles, including 77-60 in Milwaukee on January 6. Schultz scored 25 points for the Warriors while adding 15 rebounds, seven assists, and six blocks. Briana Hamilton led the Eagles with 13 points and eight rebounds.