River Forest, Ill. — The postseason is here! Concordia University Chicago men's basketball (4-10) is set to square off with the Rockford Regents (7-4) on Wednesday night in the NACC South tournament semifinal. 

Rockford's 6-2 conference record earned them the top seed in the tournament, while the Cougars (3-5) secured the fourth and final spot this past weekend with Friday night's win over Dominican. 

CUC won four of their last six after starting the year 0-8, and Head Coach Steve Kollar believes his team has not played their best basketball yet. He hopes that will change Wednesday night. 

The weekend sweep of Dominican to wrap-up the regular season was huge for the Cougars' confidence, but they had to overcome halftime deficits in both games, a task that will be a lot tougher to do against a team like Rockford.

"We are still striving towards putting together as close to 40 good minutes as possible," Kollar said. "In order to make it to Saturday, we will absolutely have to do that on Wednesday. We have been coming out slow at times and that needs to be fixed because that will not get it done in postseason play." 

A big key for the Cougars if they want to turn the tables on the Regents this time around will be stopping conference player of the year hopeful, Kevin Diemer. The junior is averaging 20.5 PPG this season, and dropped a season-high 41 points and 16 rebounds against CUC last month. After recording a pair of double-doubles against the Cougars, Diemer recorded three more in his final four games on his way to four NACC Player of the Week awards. 

The team will also need impact performances from more than one player. Jordan Matthews (Chicago, Ill.) scored 27 points in the first game against Rockford, and fellow junior Izak Ruddell (Saint Joseph, Mich.) scored 25 the following night. Ruddell was the only player to score in double-figures that night, while his 11 points the night before ranked second on the team to Matthews. 

To put that in perspective, there were four Cougars who scored in double-figures in both Dominican games this past weekend. Sophomore Brent Hatten (Olney, Ill.), who was unavailable due to injury the last time the teams met, scored in double-figures in each of the six games he played in this season. Freshman Emanuel Wilson (Wheaton, Ill.) also emerged as a scoring threat for the Cougars, eclipsing the 10-point mark in four of his last five and matching a season-high with 17 points on Saturday. 

Coach Kollar spoke highly of his team's resolve in Saturday's comeback win against Dominican, pointing to the several players who stepped up and made big plays in the second half. He says the team always wants to play their best ball down the stretch, and he's proud they finished off the regular season by playing extremely hard.

"We are excited for the opportunity to compete in the conference tournament this week and it's where we believe we should be each year," Kollar said. "The way our guys have stayed connected through all of the challenges this year really speaks to their character. They will be ready to compete for one another on Wednesday."

Wednesday's game at Rockford is scheduled to tipoff at 7 p.m. and a stream to the game can be found on Rockford's website.