First place at stake Thursday night for Men’s Basketball

MEQUON, Wis. - After a thrilling and hard-fought road victory Tuesday night over Lakeland College, the Concordia University Wisconsin men's basketball team must prepare for another first-place showdown on Thursday evening. The Falcons will travel west to face Edgewood College at 7 p.m.

Fans unable to make the can follow the action via live statistics or live video.

CUW needed an all-around effort from junior Brian Jackson (Carol Stream, Ill.) on Tuesday night to defeat the Muskies, 70-69, in a battle of Northern Athletics Conference North Division first place teams. The 6-foot-5 forward scored a career-high-tying 15 points and held the nation's fifth leading scorer, Jake Schwarz, to nine points.

The victory was the fourth consecutive for the Falcons, their longest of the season. Senior Luke Doedens (Cedarburg, Wis.) and Mitchell Schneider (New Holstein, Wis.) continue to lead CUW in scoring at 16.6 and 15.4 points per game, respectively. The offense is directed by senior Matt Paluchniak (Oostburg, Wis.) who has dished out 60 assists compared to just 26 turnovers.

Up front big men Erik Condia (senior, Orange, Calif.) and junior Steve Zielinski (Brown Deer, Wis.) have hauled in a combined 113 rebounds and rejected 26 field goal attempts.

EC (13-3, 7-1 NAC) has won three straight games and began the season with nine-consecutive wins. The Eagles received votes in the D3Hoops.com top-25 poll for the majority of the season before dropping 3-of-4 games to end and begin the respective calendar years.

Kent Faurote and Ben Wisinewski pace the Eagles with a 15.5 and 15.4 points per game average, respectively. The two are also stroking the ball from distance and are a combined 53-of-126 (42.1 percent).

Justin Williams leads the league in field goal percentage (69.2) and is second on the team in rebounding 4.2 per contest behind Faurote who leads EC with a 7.2 average per game.

CUW will wrapup its difficult three-game stretch on Saturday when it travels south to Rockford College for a 4:15 p.m. game. The contest is the second part of a doubleheader with the women's program.