Cougars Knock Off Wisconsin Lutheran for Third Straight Win
Jan. 15, 2011 - The Concordia women's basketball team put together arguably their finest 40 minutes of basketball this afternoon in defeating Wisconsin Lutheran College 73-72 at Geiseman Gymnasium. The win put the Cougars at 7-7 on the season, 4-5 in the Northern Athletics Conference.
"This was our biggest win of the year so far," said Cougar head coach Joshua Steffen who saw his team win their third straight and leapfrog over the Milwaukee School of Engineering into fourth place in the NAC South. "To win three in a row in conference and do it while playing solid defense and taking care of the ball is very important for us. We know if we do those things, there is no one on our schedule that we cannot beat."
The Warriors came into today's game at 11-2 overall, 6-1 in the NAC North, and forward Rachel Johnson gave them a good start with 11 first-half points. However, the Cougars continued their recent theme of balanced scoring which played a huge role in Tuesday's win over Aurora. While Marche Smith (Oak Park, IL/Trinity) led Concordia in the half with nine points, seven Cougars got into the scoring column and contributed to a 13-23 shooting half (57 percent). Concordia also made good on 12 of 15 free throws while the visitors struggled at 7-12, and the Cougars went into the half with a 40-36 lead.
Concordia's defense helped open the lead to seven in the early minutes of the second half as they held Wisconsin Lutheran to just one basket in their first six shots. Later in the half, Katie Leitermann (Milwaukee, WI/Martin Luther) knocked down a three to give the Cougars their first double-digit lead of the game at 53-43.
The Warriors closed to within four points over the next few minutes, but the Cougars kept their opponent at bay with some clutch threes. Bobbie May (Sandusky, MI/H.S.) hit a three from the top of the key, and Smith nailed a trio of long shots, the third one coming with 4:57 left and putting Concordia in front 67-60.
Wisconsin Lutheran made a final charge behind guard Rachel Hoft who hit a pair of threes, the second one tying the game at 69-69 with 3:07 remaining. However, Concordia retook the lead a minute later after a layup by WLC's Erika Laete would not go down. Smith was fouled and hit two free throws to make it a 71-69 game.
Smith had one final big basket in her as she rebounded a miss and scored with 45 seconds left. However, Laete hit three of four free throws in the final 10 seconds to pull the Warriors within one. The drama heightened when Smith was fouled and missed the front end of her one-and-one. The Warriors came down the court and got the ball to Krissy Day outside the arc, but her three was short and slightly off to the right as the horn sounded.
Smith's 26 points came on 8-12 shooting (3-4 from three-point range) and 7-9 at the stripe. May shot 4-7 as part of an 11-point game, and Leitermann scored 10 points to go with five rebounds. The Cougars shot 48 percent on 25-52 from the field, 37 percent on 7-19 threes, and 67 percent on 16-24 at the line.
Hoft led WLC with 21 points on 6-8 from the field (5-7 threes) and 4-6 from the line. Laete was right behind with 20 points (7-15 FG, 6-9 FT) and six rebounds. The Warriors shot 45 percent (24-58) from the field, 33 percent on 7-21 threes, and 57 percent from the line on 17-30.
The Cougars will host the Milwaukee School of Engineering on Wednesday night at 7:00.
