River Forest, Ill. — Concordia Chicago men's basketball opens up conference play with back-to-back games at home against Benedictine this weekend. Both the Cougars and the Eagles will enter the weekends contests with 0-1 records. CUC fell in their opener to Depauw on Monday, while BU dropped their first game to Trine over two weeks ago. 

The two rivals split their season series last year, with the home team winning both of the contests. CUC's win over then No. 24 BU at Geiseman last year was their first over the Eagles since 2015. 

The Cougars expect starting guard Jordan Matthews (Chicago, Ill.) and impact freshman forward William Bishop-Green (Chicago, Ill.) to rejoin the squad this week as both players were unavailable for Monday's game against Depauw. 

Benedictine's loss came by just one point in overtime following a back-and-forth game that featured 11 ties and 10 lead changes. In the loss, freshman forward Trevor Montiel (Roselle, Ill.) posted a double-double, collecting 16 points and 11 boards. Junior Michael Johnson (Chicago, Ill.) and senior Chris Hester (Countryside, Ill.) both scored 15 points of their own.

Impact freshmen are something the two teams have in common, with guards Emanuel Wilson (Wheaton, Ill.) and Justin Greenlee (Brown Deer, Wis.) making statements in their first collegiate games. Wilson led the team in scoring with 17 points, while Greenlee dished out a team-high three assists and grabbed five boards. 

CUC will continue to look to their depth after scoring 19 bench points to Depauw's 18 in the opener. Benedictine's bench contributed 18 points against Trine, so this figures to be an evenly balanced matchup. 

The pair of matchups are slated for Friday and Saturday with 7 p.m. and 5 p.m. tip-offs, respectively. The games can be found on the CUC Athletics Youtube channel.