River Forest, Ill. – For the first time this season, the Benedictine University Eagles (7-13, 7-6 NACC) made the trek to River Forest to take on the Concordia University Chicago Cougars (10-10, 8-5 NACC). This is the first time these two teams have met in the regular season.
 
INSIDE THE BOX

• Alisyn MacGregor (Loves Park, Ill.) secured her fourth double-double of the season as she scored 12 points and had 13 rebounds on the night.
• Mckayley Hopkins (St. Louis, Mo.) had herself a career night in her first start of the season by leading the Cougars in scoring with 14 points, which sets her new season and career high.
• Jaylene Wade (Lansing, Ill.) led the team in assists with three. She also added nine points in the offensive effort.

 
FIRST QUARTER
It was a back-and-forth affair in the early minutes of the first quarter with the Eagles striking first giving them an early 2-0 lead. However, the Cougars responded quickly after an acrobatic layup from MacGregor.
 

MacGregor would then go on to score another layup on the very next Cougar's possession to cut the lead to 5-4. From that point on, it was all Benedictine as the Eagles went on a 13-2 run. The Cougars answered the call after Sydney Lloyd (Grand Forks, N.D.) sank a halfcourt shot that left Geiseman Gymnasium elated. The Cougars ended the first quarter down 18-13.

 

SECOND QUARTER
The second quarter got off to a quick start as Hopkins showed off her speed on a driving layup attempt to pull the Cougars within three points.
 

Despite the Cougars's run, the Eagles did not go away easily. Benedictine responded by going on an 11-0 run. The Eagle's defense was also stingy as they held the Cougars scoreless for close to six minutes.Hopkins stopped the bleeding for the Cougars by taking matters into her own hands as she scored four straight points to set herself a new career and season high. Nazuri Whigham (Naperville, Ill.) also made her presence felt by knocking down a huge three-pointer to give the Eagles a five-point advantage. The Eagles led the Cougars at halftime 32-26.
 
 
THIRD QUARTER
Wade started the second half on a good note for the Cougars as she blew straight past the Eagles defense to score a tough layup.
 

Hopkins continued to be a force for the Cougars as she added in another fastbreak layup going coast-to-coast and helping the Cougars close in on the Eagles.
 

Overall, the Cougars defense played a much cleaner quarter as they held the Eagles to 10 points on 31% shooting from both the field and from behind the three-point line. By the end of the quarter the Cougars only trailed by four points to the Eagles 42-38.
 
FOURTH QUARTER
The Cougars tied the game with a little more than seven minutes to play off a sweep-and-go from Melia Perry to even the score at 42.
 

The Cougars then secured their second lead of the night as MacGregor got the and-one layup to give the Cougars a 44-42 lead with 7:00 left in regulation.
On the very next Cougar possession, MacGregor scored yet another layup to ensure her fourth double-double of the season. MacGregor's back-to-back buckets jump started the Cougars in their route to a 52-50 victory over the Eagles.
 

The Cougars will return to home court action Saturday against conference opponent MSOE at 4:15 p.m. Coverage can be found at cucougars.com/coverage while all things CUC Women's Basketball is located on the team's Twitter and Instagram @cucwbball.