vs.
Saint Mary's Cardinals   0-1-0 Overall			Mt. Vernon Nazarene Cougars   3-1-0 Overall
		vs.
North Central Cardinals   0-0 Overall			MacMurray Highlanders   0-1 Overall

Live In-Game Statistics

Tournament Field: Host North Central (0-0 Overall), Mount Vernon Nazarne (3-1 Overall), Saint Mary's (0-1 Overall), MacMurray (0-1 Overall).

Tournament Schedule:
Friday's Games: Saint Mary's vs. Mount Vernon Nazarene, 4 p.m.; MacMurray vs. North Central, 8 p.m.
Saturday's Games: Consolation, 4 p.m.; Championship, 8 p.m.

Last Action: The Cardinals kicked off their season last Saturday, falling to defending NCAA Division II national champion Winona State 92-66. … Mount Vernon Nazarene, meanwhile, enters the weekend tournament with four games under their belt, including a 10-point, 109-99 loss to Ashland on Tuesday. … North Central is kicking off its 2008-09 season this weekend, while MacMurray opened its season with a 91-65 loss vs. Elmhurst on Saturday.

SMU vs. the Field: Tonight's matchup is the first-ever meeting between Saint Mary's and Mount Vernon Nazarene. The Cardinals have also never faced MacMurray, while SMU and North Central have met one other time, with the Cardinals coming out the victor.

SMU Cardinal Notes: The Cardinals' Will Wright (Chicago, Ill.) recorded the first double-double of his career vs. Winona State, tossing in a team-high 22 points, while also pulling down a career-best 10 rebounds. … Wright has now scored 10 or more points in 22 of the Cardinals' last 26 games — including the last seven straight. … Wright's 22 points vs. WSU marked the 11th time in his career that he has scored 20 or more points. It was also the second time in two meetings that Wright has scored 20 or more vs. the Warriors — Wright netted 20 in his collegiate debut a year ago. … Lukas Holland (La Crosse, Wis.) also scored in double figures vs. the Warriors last Saturday, pouring in 19 points. … Wright and Holland netted 19 of the team's 25 free throws — Holland was 10-for-11, while Wright was 9-for-10. As a team, SMU was 25-for-29 from the charity stripe. … Holland and Wright led the team in scoring in 22 of their 25 games a year ago and the two have now led the team in scoring in the team's last 18 straight games. … SMU's loss to Winona State was the 22nd in a row vs. the Warriors.

MVNU Cougar Notes: Mount Vernon Nazarene, which is ranked No. 3 in the NAIA Division II preseason poll and was the preseason pick by the American Mideast Conference coaches to win the AMC title, is coming off a 23-8 campaign in which the Cougars advanced to the NAIA Division II National Tournament for the third straight year, while also topping the 20-win mark for the 11th time in the last 12 seasons. … The Cougars return four starters from last year's squad and five of that team's top six scorers. Leading the way is two-time NAIA Division II First Team All-American Ben Falkenberg. The senior guard averaged an AMC-leading 21.5 points, handed out a career-high 111 assists, and ranked second in the nation in free throw percentage (.917) and fourth in three-pointers made per game (4.1) a year ago. Falkenberg entered the season with 1,997 career points — added 95 through WVNU's first three games — and is within 246 points of the school's career mark of 2,338 points. … Falkenberg netted a season-high 39 points in WVNU's loss to Ashland Tuesday — marking the 12th time in his career he has netted 30 or more points. He also matched his career best with eight assists. … The Cougars had their season-opening three-game winning streak snapped with Tuesday's 10-point loss to Ashland. … MVNU nailed 19 3-points en route to their 99 points Tuesday.

North Central Cardinal Notes: The Cardinals finished last season with a 10-15 overall record and a 4-10 mark in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW). … North Central, tabbed to finish sixth in the CCIW preseason coaches' poll, returns six players with significant experience, led by Chris Drennan (17.7 ppg). … The Cardinals also return two other double-figure scorers in Matt Rogers (17.6 ppg) and Reid Barringer (11.8 ppg). … Barringer also posted a team-best 69 3-point field goals last season. … North Central raced out to a 5-0 start a year ago, but the injury-plagued Cardinals struggled down the stretch, going 3-9 in their final 12 games to finish 10-15. … In his four years as North Central's head coach, Todd Raridon's Cardinals have set a record for most wins in a season (22), won the inaugural CCIW Tournament and posted the best non-conference, regular-season record in school history (11-0). In 2005-06, North Central earned a bid to the NCAA III Tournament (the fifth in school history) and was ranked as high as 10th in the D3hoops.com Top 25, North Central's highest ranking ever.

MacMurray Highlander Notes: The Highlanders are coming off a 4-21 record a year ago. After going 1-1 in their first two games, the Highlanders struggled through a season-high 12-game losing streak, before rattling off wins in three of their next four games. MacMurray then closed out the season with losses in their last seven games. … MacMurray has given up 197 points in two games this season — 106 in a 106-79 exhibition loss to SE Missouri State and 91 in their 91-5 loss to Elmhurst. … Farrid Coleman scored a team-high 13 points vs. the Bluejays Saturday, while Sam Knox and Ryan Sichting each chipped in 11 points in the losing effort. … The Highlanders made just 6 of 14 3-pointers vs. Elmhurst. … Elmhurst held MacMurray to just 23 first-half points last Saturday.