Box Score Dec. 30, 2017 - The Concordia-Chicago men returned to the floor this afternoon for the first time in 11 days. The Cougars looked for their first Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference win in six tries as they took on the Marian University Sabres on a bitter-cold day in Fond du Lac, WI. Marian's strong shooting enabled them to build a big lead, while CUC's inconsistent shooting prevented them from making any sustained runs, barring the final minutes, and the results was a Sabres' 90-80 victory over the Cougars.

The Sabres were lights out with their shooting in the early minutes, connecting on five of their first six from the field in taking a 12-6 lead. Mitch Pelissier and Henry Woo Jr. hit threes to open the CUC scoring, and Woo remained hot in scoring the next two baskets. However, the Sabres were hard to slow down, as they shot 12-21 through the first 10 minutes, hitting six of their 11 threes and building a 32-15 lead.

Marian extended the lead six more points as part of a 14-0 run before the CUC offense came back with two free throws by Jonathan Wilson and a three-point play by Immanuel Oby. A putback by Hassan Basbous forced a Sabres' time-out with 3:28 left and the home team's lead down to 43-26. The unit of Oby, Basbous, Wilson, Justin Schwarz and Chad Abbadessa made some hustle plays to keep the offense going, but Marian held on to a 51-35 lead at the break.

The Cougars looked to make some inroads on their deficit, but they misfired on seven of their first nine shot attempts. Soon after, the Sabres heated up from three-point land again, with Will Olewinski knocking down two and Tavaris McCullough one. Marian boosted its lead into the twenties and were never seriously threatened, although CUC made a charge over the final few minutes to trim the final margin to 10 points.

Pelissier led the Cougars with 29 points, 21 in the second half. Oby contributed a career-high 13 points, and Wilson added 12 points and seven rebounds. The Cougars shot 42 percent for the game on 28-66 from the field, including 6-18 on threes and 18-24 from the charity stripe.

Marian (4-7, 2-3 NACC) posted five players in double figures, led by Manhardt's 19 points and 10 rebounds. The Sabres shot 50 50 percent on 33-66 and were good on 10 of 28 from beyond the arc and 14-19 from the free-throw line. Rebounds went to Marian as well by a 42-35 margin.

Concordia-Chicago (1-9, 0-6 NACC) will play at Dominican University on Wednesday night in the resumption of the River Forest Rivalry Cup.