Jan. 13, 2016 - Fresh off a pair of victories in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play last week, the Concordia-Chicago women's basketball team looked to pick up their third consecutive win this evening at Geiseman Gymnasium. Standing in their way was a Benedictine University team that came in with a 10-3 record, 7-1 and in second place in the NACC. The opportunity to make a statement was there, but a slow start in both the first and third quarters put the Cougars in a hole for most of the evening, and the Eagles rolled to the win by a final score of 72-58.
Benedictine won the opening tip and took an immediate lead as Venita Parsons hit a three from the left wing. The Eagles built their lead to 7-0 before
Sarah Smith (St. Ignace, MI/LaSalle) put back a missed shot while being fouled. Her free throw made the score 7-3, However, the Eagles scored the next six points to take a double-digit lead just five minutes into the game. Concordia-Chicago missed 12 of its first 13 shots, but they did recover in the final minutes of the quarter. Trailing 21-9,
Courtney Lofink (Orange, CA/Orange Lutheran) dialed up the Cougars' first long-range three of the night.
Angelik Young (Crete, IL/Crete-Monee) then came up with a loose ball and wound up on the receiving end of the fast break as CUC cut the deficit to 21-14 at the end of the first 10 minutes.
The second quarter was the Cougars' best of the night. The Eagles scored the first bucket, but the Cougars charged back over the next few minutes with the next six points. Two Eagles' free throws restored the lead to five, but
Miranda Rogers (Cypress, TX/Houston Christian) narrowed the gap with a three from the top of the key. Then, following an Eagles' miss,
Taylor Jacobsen (Aurora, IL/West Aurora) was fouled on a second-chance opportunity. Jacobsen canned the two free throws, and the two rivals were on even terms at 25-25. However, D'Asia Williams' three touched off an 8-0 run by the visitors, and they were able to keep their lead at six, 36-30 as the game reached halftime.
Concordia-Chicago had somewhat recovered from its first large deficit, but they were unable to come back from the second. Benedictine scored the first six points of the third quarter to go up by 12. CUC did not score its first field goal until the 6:26 mark, and they managed to get only as close as seven points at 44-37. A 7-1 spurt by the Eagles over the final three minutes of the quarter extended the lead out to 55-40. Benedictine's lead remained in double digits throughout the fourth quarter, with CUC getting as close as 11 points in the final two minutes.
Cold shooting was the Cougars' biggest problem of the evening as they shot just 30 percent overall on 18 of 60 overall. Three-point shooting was no better as they connected on only three of 13 tries. Meanwhile, the Eagles shot 48 percent overall on 28-58, 3-10 from long range. Benedictine also controlled the boards by a final margin of 41-30.
Morgan Jahnke (Fox Lake, IL/Grant Community) finished as the Cougars' high scorer with 14 points. Lofink was the only other CUC player to hit double figures as she scored 10. Alanna Ferry paced the Eagles with 13 points and handed out six assists while Nicole Botich rang up a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds.
The Cougars (6-7, 4-5 NACC) will look to bounce back on Saturday as they host the Milwaukee School of Engineering on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. CUC will look to avenge a two-point loss to MSOE back on Jan. 2.
