River Forest, Ill.- Concordia University Chicago faced off against Benedictine University who came in at 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference in a battle for the top spot in the standings. The first half belonged to CUC and they went into the break with a 40-35 lead. After they controlled the first half, the Cougars lost control of the lead and could not take it back. The second half was controlled by the Eagles who would win the battle of NACC unbeaten 77-68.
 
"I thought they just were tougher than us," remarked head coach Rusty Rogers. "We came out ready to go in the first half, but didn't respond to their run in the third quarter. We really need to clean up the defensive glass moving forward. It always is tough to lose but we can learn a lot from this game. One loss doesn't define our season, how we react to this getting ready for Edgewood will."
 
Taylor Jacobsen led CUC (5-1, 3-1 NACC) with 17 points on 8-13 shooting followed by Sophia Leon with 16 and Jacie Dickerson with 11 who also pulled down eight rebounds and blocked three shots. CUC shot 44 percent for the game to the Eagles 34 percent, but Benedictine (6-1, 4-0 NACC) would take 32 more shots on the night because of 28 offensive rebounds that resulted in 23 second chance points.
 
CUC came out hot with everything clicking. The Cougars opened up the first three minutes of action on a mission grabbing the 10-2 lead. Leon came off the bench, sparked the offense, to hold off an Eagles' mid-quarter surge. The Concordia-Chicago attack stayed strong and pushed their lead to 22-13 at the end of one.
 
Benedictine did not let the Cougars get away in the second quarter and closed the gap to 27-22 early on. T.Jacobson and Leon helped extend the lead again with driving plays to the basket that ended in and one opportunities. Three straight rebounds on the offensive end for BenU led to free throws and easy points, which allowed them to shrink the CUC lead to 35-31 with less than a minute left in the half. Crystal Corr put an end to the run singlehandedly with a steal and a score at the other end late in the half. After her free throw capped off the and-one sequence, CUC led 40-35 at the break.
 
The Cougars led for eighteen minutes of the first half in large part to shooting 46 percent from the floor while holding Benedictine to 31 percent.
 
In the third quarter, the Cougars and Eagles went back and forth through the first couple minutes. The Eagles capitalized off of second chances and CUC turnovers to even up the score at 51-51. Concordia-Chicago used a timeout to regroup after BenU took the lead with 2:29 left in the third. As the third quarter ended the Eagles kept in the lead at 57-55.
 
CUC found themselves behind in the fourth with eight minutes left and the score at 60-56. Unfortunately for the CUC after a timeout, the Eagles came out with five straight points and widened their lead to 69-60. The Concordia defense forced the Eagles into mistakes to cut the lead down to five with 2:14 left in the game. Benedictine was able to convert free throws late though to end the CUC winner streak by a final score of 77-66.
 
The Cougars will now ready for their second home game of the Christmas break when they welcome the Edgewood College Eagles to Geiseman. Tip-off is set for 4:15 pm following the men's game.