Jan. 14, 2015 - The Concordia-Chicago women's basketball team found themselves with a formidable challenge this evening in the visiting Wisconsin Lutheran College Warriors. Preseason favorites in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, the Warriors came into tonight's game on an eight-game winning streak, 7-1 and tied for first in the NACC. The Cougars looked to put 40 minutes of sustained pressure on the Warriors, but a slow start put an early dent in the home team's chances, and WLC rolled to an 89-68 victory.
It took just over four minutes for the Warriors to jump to a 13-2 lead. Kristen Schulz, the Warriors' 6'3" center, established her presence early as she scored six points from in close. The 2013-14 NACC Player of the Year would go on to have a monster game of 28 points (12-16 from the field) and 20 rebounds, and leading WLC to a 43-25 advantage on the glass.
Following a timeout, the Cougars struck back with a 9-0 run. Miranda Rogers (Cypress, TX/Houston Christian) hit the Cougars' first three of the evening. That was followed by a Shania Kiser (Fremont, OH/Fremont Ross)putback, a Lauren Orr (O'Fallon, MO/Lutheran St. Charles) jumper and a steal and layup by Courtney Lofink (Orange, CA/Orange Lutheran). However, layups by Cristal Frey and Maggie Gartner halted the Cougars' surge. The Warriors shot 57 percent for the first half including 6-12 from long range. Much of the latter came from Karisa Pedersen who came off the bench to knock down four of five triples. But it was a layup by Schulz that ended the half with the Warriors on top, 48-32.
Wisconsin Lutheran opened up the second half with the first eight points, six coming from Schulz. Concordia looked to rally behing some strong second-half shooting from downtown. The Cougars went 8-18 led by Orr's marksmanship. The sophomore hit 5-6 for the half and 7-8 for the game, finishing with a new career-high of 25 points. However, the bombardment of threes would not be enough as CUC would get no closer than 16 points the rest of the way.
Three WLC players followed Schulz to post double digits in scoring. Pederson hit 6-7 from long range in scoring 18. Gartner finished with 14 and Frey with 12. The Warriors shot 35-59 (.603) from the field, 9-19 (.474) on threes, and 10-13 (.769) from the free throw line.
Concordia (9-6, 7-5 NACC) was led by Orr's 25, followed by Angelik Young (Crete, IL/Crete-Monee) with 12 and Lofink with 10. The Cougars shot 24-67 (.358) overall, 11-32 (.344)Â on threes and 9-10 (.900) from the stripe. The Cougars will travel to Wisconsin on Saturday to play the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Concordia will look to sweep the season series following an 80-67 win on Jan. 3.
