Dec. 29, 2013 - Hoping that a change of scenery might be just the tonic needed, the Concordia University Chicago women's basketball team traveled to Arizona for two games in the Scottsdale Shootout. Minus three starters, the Cougars put up a game effort in tonight's first contest, but the University of Southern Maine used an early second-half scoring blitz to down Concordia-Chicago by a 75-44 score.

The big difference in tonight's game came on the glass. The Huskies owned a decisive 65-35 advantage despite the Cougars holding the team from Portland to 37 percent shooting from the field.

Trailing 21-12 midway through the first half, Morgan Jahnke (Fox Lake, IL/Grant Community) scored inside. Lauren Orr (O'Fallon, MO/Lutheran St. Charles) followed with the first of her three triples of the night to bring the Cougars within four. The Huskies bumped their lead back up to nine over the next few minutes as Stephanie Gallagher connected on a pair of threes, but Miranda Rogers (Cypress, TX/Houston Christian) answered by knocking down a couple from downtown. That made the score 32-26 before Southern Maine scored the final two points of the half to take an eight-point lead after 20 minutes.

Unfortunately for the Cougars, they came out of the locker room cold to start the second half. The Huskies began with a 12-2 run, aided by the Cougars missing their first eight shots from the field. By the time that Orr knocked down her third three of the game, CUC was down 46-31. Southern Maine took a 20-point lead by the midway point of the half, and CUC was unable to mount a big enough rally to overcome the deficit.

Rogers led the Cougars with a season-high 15 points on five threes. Orr also recorded her season-high of 10 points. Angelik Young (Crete, IL/Crete-Monee) scored eight points while pulling down a team-high nine rebounds.

The Cougars (0-9) will tangle with Pacific Lutheran University on Monday night at 7:00 (Chicago time). Pacific Lutheran fell to Transylvania University 63-52 in Sunday's other contest.