RIVER FOREST, Ill. -- After dropping their last two contests, the Concordia-Chicago Cougars will travel to Benedictine University tonight for a heavy-weight match up against the Eagles. CUC will hope to clip the Eagles for the second time this season, as the Cougars previously defeated BenU inside Geiseman Gymnasium, 90-72, back when the NACC opponent was then ranked No. 24 in the nation. 

Where We Stand... At the midway point of the season, the Cougars are 6-8 overall with a 5-5 conference ledger. CUC has already matched its win total from a season ago, and currently sits in seventh place among the NACC standings. In taking on Benedictine, Concordia-Chicago will look to steal a road win from the first place team in the league and kick off a big week for the Cougars, who are hosting the 69th Annual Concordia Invitational Tournament later this week. On Friday night, CUC will have a primetime match up against Concordia Wisconsin and push to pick up more critical NACC conference points. 

Guess Who's Back... Sophomore Landen Gladney returned to the floor for the first time in 2020 last week, after missing five games due to injury. The Chicago native scored 11 points in just 15 minutes during his return against CUW and picked up 12 more points against the Scarlet Hawks last weekend. Gladney will look to pick up where he left off this season, with 23 career double-doubles, 570 career points and 369 rebounds.

Eagle Eye... Last week, Benedictine dropped out of D3Hoops.com's national rankings, but is still receiving poll votes nationwide. The Eagles are 12-3 overall and 8-2 in NACC play, having only lost to the Cougars and Wisconsin Lutheran College. At home, BenU is an undefeated 7-0 this season, and averages 84.7 points per game when competing inside their own gym. Led by Eric Grygo and Mike Boatright, the duo combines for 31.6 points per game for the Eagles, while three other players average 9.0 points or more per game for Benedictine. 

Shoot Your Shot... CUC has had the hot hand recently, as the Cougars are second among the NACC with their 38.9 percent shooting from beyond the arc and leads the conference with 10.7 made three-pointers per game. Dating back to Dec. 7, against Wisconsin Lutheran College, CUC has scored eight or more three pointers in each of their last nine games, and picked up five wins during that span. Izak Ruddell leads the Cougars' three-point brigade, as he has shot 55.2 percent from range this season, which also leads the NACC. Brent Hatten, Charlie Reznikoff and Raushaun Amos are also critical parts of CUC's shooting successes, as the trio combines for 84-of-207 (40.6%) from behind the three-point line.