BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- Both the Illinois Wesleyan women's and men's basketball teams will be opening their 2016-17 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin seasons with games against North Central College at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 3, at Gregory Arena in Naperville, Ill.

Go here for all live coverage of the two games.

MEN'S BASKETBALL
 
THE GAME: The Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team opens its 2016-17 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin schedule with a 7 p.m. game on Saturday, Dec. 3 at North Central in Naperville, Ill. … The Cardinals were the preseason CCIW favorite.
 
THE SCHEDULE: The return of Carroll University to the CCIW forces Illinois Wesleyan and other CCIW teams to play league games before the Christmas break for the first time since the 1996-97 season. In addition to North Central, IWU has a home game against North Park on Dec. 7 and plays at Elmhurst on Dec. 10 ... Illinois Wesleyan beat Carthage, 88-61, on Dec. 7, 1996, in the Titans' last CCIW pre-Christmas game.
 
THE TITANS: IWU is off to a 5-0 start and is ranked No. 16 in the first D3hoops.com poll of the season … Most recently, IWU was No. 24 in the preseason rankings in 2015-16 but were not ranked the remainder of last year. IWU was No. 24 on Feb. 8, 2015, and was as high as No. 9 earlier that season (Dec. 14, 2014) … Illinois Wesleyan has a 5-0 record for the first time since the 2010-11 season when the Titans won their first six games to start 6-0 … The Titans have five players scoring in double figures, led by senior Andy Stempel at 15.2 per game. Junior Jaylen Beasley leads IWU with 7.2 rebounds per game.
 
SCOUTING THE CARDINALS: Prior to Tuesday's 57-40 home loss to Wisconsin-Platteville, North Central had moved up to No. 6 in the D3hoops.com national rankings … After finishing the 2015-16 regular season at No. 25, the Cardinals were No. 13 in D3hoops.com preseason poll … North Central opened the season with wins over Benedictine (72-69), Alma (78-59) and Aurora (88-78) … The Cardinals are led by Alex Sorensen with 18.3 points and 9.3 rebounds per game while Connor Raridon scores 16.8 per game and Erwin Henry adds 11.8.
 
COMING UP: Illinois Wesleyan is at home next Wednesday, Dec. 7 to face North Park at 7 p.m. … The 4-0 Vikings were among the teams receiving votes in the D3hoops.com poll.
   
THE GAME: The Illinois Wesleyan women's basketball team opens its 2016-17 CCIW schedule with a 5 p.m. game on Saturday, Dec. 3 at North Central in Naperville, Ill. … The Cardinals were selected to place third in the CCIW during the preseason.
 
THE TITANS: IWU is off to a 3-3 start after defeating Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology by a final score of 66-38 on 11/30. The Titans split at the Midwest Challenge, defeating Illinois College before losing to Washington University in St. Louis, 87-86, in the championship. IWU is led by junior Molly McGraw and senior Rebekah Ehresman … McGraw leads the team in scoring with 15.2 points per game, while Ehresman averages 10.2 per … Ehresman is the team leader in rebounding with 7.0 per game, and assists with 3.7 per … The Titans have forced their opposition into 26.8 turnovers per game thus far in 2016.
 
SCOUTING THE CARDINALS: North Central enters Saturday's action with a record of 3-1. Their lone loss came at the hands of Rose-Hulman, whom IWU beat earlier in the week. Offensively the Cardinals are among the best in the nation, ranking third in scoring and first in 3-point field goals per game. North Central gets things done on the defensive end of the court as well, ranking first in steals per game and first in forced turnovers. Anita Sterling is the leading scorer for the Cardinals with 12.0 points per game … Jessica Dahle is the only other player scoring in double-digits for NCC with 10.0 per game.
 
COMING UP: Illinois Wesleyan continues their road trip next week when they take on Elmhurst College on Saturday, Dec. 10. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. Mikaela Eppard leads the Bluejays with 17.7 points per game and 8.8 rebounds per game. Eppard has shot 65.7 percent from the floor in thus far in 2016.