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This Week: After the duo of head coach Mike Durbin and assistant coach Denny Johnson captured their 600th win together last Wednesday, (Jan. 29) they will be bringing their Saint Benedict basketball team back home to face off against Bethel University in the Claire Lynch Hall at 3:00 p.m. this Saturday (Feb. 1). This will be the first of two consecutive home games before the Blazers finish off the season with six home games in their last nine regular season games.
 
About the Royals: The Royals currently sit fourth in the MIAC with an overall record of 12-5 and a conference record of 10-4. After starting out their season 6-0, the Royals suffered their first loss of the season to Buena Vista University. From there, Bethel has gone 6-4 and will be coming to the Claire Lynch Hall after their biggest loss of the season, where they fell 84-59 to Concordia.
 
Last Time: The last time these two teams faced off was just under a month ago (Jan. 4) in Arden Hills, Minn. Here, the Blazers suffered a tough road loss by a score of 63-59. The game started out close with the Royals in a slight lead for the whole first half up until the Blazers tied the game at 26-26 with seven minutes remaining. The Blazers then took a slight 33-28 lead and kept the lead for the rest of the first half.  In the second half, the Blazers held a lead for the beginning of the first half by a score of 46-39. The Royals eventually crawled back and the two teams juggled the lead back and forth tying the game three times before the Royals pushed ahead to take the 63-59 lead.
 
The Storyline: With a record of 10-6, the Blazers have almost matched the Royal's success so far this season. The Blazers, who have won three of their past four games, will be looking to climb the ranks in the MIAC where they currently sit in sixth place. They will be trying to use their momentum to start adding up more conference wins as their conference record sits at 7-6 with only MIAC games remaining this season. The Royals, who have lost three of their last four games, will also be looking to get out of their slump after starting the season 11-2.
 
Who to Watch: Brianna Barrett leads the Blazer offense with 14.8 points per game, which lands her in fourth place in the MIAC. Mattie Lueck also adds another 10.8 points per game and leads the team with 2.6 assists per game. Defensively, Morgan Dale leads the MIAC with 11.3 rebounds per game. The Royals, on the other hand have no players in the top five in any category in the MIAC besides Rachel Parupsky who sits in fifth place with 8.2 rebounds per game. This means the Blazers must watch out for the team to be playing well together instead of any one standout player.

Brianna Barrett	Mattie Lueck	Morgan Dale

 
Last Time Out: In their last time out, the Blazers took a 68-58 win over Hamline University to give coaches Durban and Johnson their 600th win. The game stayed very close for the majority of the first half until the Blazers pulled ahead with a 29-17 lead with just over three minutes remaining. The Pipers then climbed back to finish the half with a Blazer's lead of 29-25. The Blazers quickly extended their lead in the second half and put the score at 39-26 in the first six minutes. From here, the Blazers kept a strong lead for the rest of the game and finished the Pipers off with 68-58 win to improve their record to 10-6.