Men’s Basketball hosts Benedictine on Saturday, No. 1 seed at stake

MEQUON, Wis. - After winning their third-straight Northern Athletics Conference North Division title, Concordia University Wisconsin's men's basketball team looks to capture the No. 1 overall seed for the conference tournament on Saturday against Benedictine University at 4 p.m. in the NAC Challenge Game inside the R. John Buuck Field House.

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

CUW and BU each finished in first place in its respective NAC Division, thus pitting the two programs against each other with the NAC Tournament's No. 1 seed on the line. Three years ago the NAC created the Challenge Game, which pairs schools from each Division against each other with tournament seeds at stake.

The Eagles were one of just two Falcons conference defeats this season. BU's Michael Woolf went coast-to-coast through a CUW full-court press to make a layup with 2.7 seconds remaining on Dec. 3, 2011 to earn a hard-fought 66-65 victory.

CUW has had a flare for the dramatic dating back to a Jan. 17 victory at Lakeland College. They have won nine of its last 11 contests, including six by five points or less. Most recently, CUW defeated Edgewood College, 69-66, at home on Tuesday for its seventh-straight conference win.

Senior Luke Doedens (Cedarburg, Wis.) leads the team with a 16.5 points and 5.4 rebounds per game average. The senior guard is ranked 11th nationally in 3-point field goal percentage (45.1), as of Feb. 12. Senior Mitchell Schneider (New Holstein, Wis.) is scoring 14.6 per game and recently scored a career-high-tying 25 points.

In addition, senior Matt Paluchniak (Oostburg, Wis.) leads the team with a 5.2 assists per game average and has 125 assists during the regular season, while committing 43 turnovers, for a 2.9 assists-to-turnover ratio.

Nate Green leads BU with an 18.0 points per game average, which ranks second among all NAC players. He is also grabbing a team-best 5.6 rebounds per contest. Michael Woolf is second in the NAC knocking down 49.3 percent of his 3-pointers.