River Forest, Ill. -- The Concordia University Chicago men's basketball team played their home opener on Saturday afternoon, welcoming the fifth-ranked Pioneers of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville to Geiseman Gymnasium for a non-conference battle. The Cougars were unable to pull off the upset victory, falling 88-60. 

Notes

• Senior Jordan Matthews (Chicago, Ill.) led the team with ten points.

• Sophomore Andreas Louloudis (Thessaloniki, Greece) tied for a team-high four rebounds, a career-best. He also added a block.

• Senior Izak Ruddell (Saint Joseph, Mich.) had a pair of steals. 

• Sophomore Will Wainscott (Oswego, Ill.) put up for points in four minutes, including a fast-break layup set up by a steal. 

The Pioneers came out of the gate hot, scoring the game's first 12 points before freshman Jacob Collicott (Lafayette, Ind.) broke the ice for CUC with a three-pointer. Senior Jalen Meeks (Aurora, Colo.) followed with a three-point shot of his own the following possession and the team was quickly back within six. 

This was the closest the Cougars would get for the remainder of the game, however. They kept the deficit under 20 points for the majority of the first half, but 19 made free throws from the Pioneers was a lot to overcome. Platteville closed the half on a 15-6 run to take their largest lead of the game (22) into the locker room.

The Cougars were able to slow down the Pioneer attack in the second half, holding them to just 36 points while CUC replicated their first-half output of 30. The team's hustle never slowed from top to bottom, with 15 Cougars logging at least three minutes of action. 

It's a quick turnaround for the team, as they'll be back in action this Wednesday, Nov. 24, taking on Carroll University in Geiseman before flipping the page to conference play after the Thanksgiving holiday. A stream to the game will be available at cucougars.com/coverage.