Nov. 27, 2010 - The Rockford College women's basketball team used sharp shooting from the field and even sharper shooting from the foul line to hand the Concordia Cougars an 84-56 setback at Geiseman Gymnasium this afternoon in the Northern Athletics Conference opener for both teams.
Megan Lawler scored the Regents' four points as the visitors led from start to finish. However, an incredible start by Concordia's Marche Smith (Oak Park, IL/Trinity) kept the Cougars close. Smith scored her team's first 18 points on 7-7 from the field (including a couple of threes) and 2-2 from the line as the home team hung within 26-18 at the 7:43 mark. However, Britney Curry scored four points to put the visitors up by 12 before Maja Despot (Glen Ellyn, IL/Glenbard South) hit two free throws to end Smith's consecutive run of points.
Smith and Despot finished the half with 20 and nine points respectively, but they could not match the Regents' balanced offense which featured 52 percent shooting (13-25) from the field and a perfect 17 of 17 at the foul line for a 45-29 lead. Six different Rockford players went to the foul line in the half with Curry and Kelcy Thorsen leading the way with 4-4 each. The Regents also got a boost off the bench from Nicole Olson who scored 10 points including a pair of threes.
The Cougars were unable to rally in the second half, getting only as close as 16 on Smith's layup with 15:05 remaining. The Regents scored the next 12 points, and their lead would never slip below 20 after that point.
Smith finished with 29 points on 12-18 shooting (2-4 threes) and 3-4 at the line. Despot shot 4-7 from the field and 5-7 at the line for 13 points to go with six rebounds. Olson and Curry led Rockford with 16 points each while Nicole Lawler added 15 points. Megan Lawler scored 10 points while also pulling down a game-high 13 rebounds.
Concordia (1-2, 0-1 NAC) will look to even their record on Wednesday night when they play at Dominican University at 7:00.
