Jan. 23, 2016 - The Concordia-Chicago Cougars and Lakeland Muskies met this afternoon in Sheboygan in what was the teams' only head-to-head matchup this season. The Cougars swept the two games last year, but the Muskies captured this one by holding off a late rally to win by a final score of 80-72.
The Cougars wasted no time getting on the board as Morgan Jahnke (Fox Lake, IL/Grant Community) hit a 10-footer in the lane. Miranda Rogers (Cypress, TX/Houston Christian) then sank a three from the key for a 5-0 lead just a minute into the game. The lead shot up to 9-0 before Lakeland got on the board 2:25 on a Kayla Clark layup. Young remained hot, pushing her total up to eight points as the Cougars built a 15-7 lead. However, the Muskies were energized by their second unit and scored the next 10 points, capped off by a Bailey Grayvold three. It became a 12-0 run before a Taylor Jacobsen (Aurora, IL/West Aurora) baseline jumper put CUC back on the board and made the score LC 19, CUC 17. The Muskies added a free throw for a three-point margin at the end of the quarter. Rogers began the second quarter with her second long one of the game, tying the score at 20-20. Lakeland regained the lead briefly with a three, but a putback by Young and two free throws by Jahnke restored the lead to CUC at 24-23.
The Cougars bumped the lead up to 30-24 before the turnovers finally caught up to them. Lakeland went off on an 11-0 run, highlighted by a Miranda Jacobson three-point play that vaulted the hosts into the lead for good.Rogers eventually stopped the bleeding with her third triple of the game, but the Cougars went cold on offense and trailed at halftime 44-35.
Halftime stats showed CUC almost doubling Lakeland in turnovers, 15-8. The Cougars' turnovers resulted in 15 LC points, an unfortunate equalizer as the Cougars had outplayed the Muskies in other aspects for the half. Lakeland did a better job of getting to the free throw line as well, canning 13 of 19 while Concordia-Chicago was just 6-12.
The third quarter saw the Cougars do a slightly better job in cleaning up the turnovers, but the Miuskies were able to maintain the lead between 8-12 points for much of the way.Courtney Lofink (Orange, CA/Orange Lutheran)began to pick up the offense after a scoreless first half, but the team missed its last six shots of the quarrter and trailed 65-56 after 30 minutes.Â
In the fourth quarter, Bailey Grayvold hit a three to put the home team up by 12, but the Cougars made their move over the next several minutes. Lofink and Rogers drained threes, and Young scored on a putback to make it a four-point game. Minutes later,Teaira Miller (Maywood, IL/Glenbard East) stole the ball and went in for a layup that made it a two-point game with 2:48 remaining. But the comeback ended there as Lakeland scored the next nine points, most from the free throw line, Rogers hit a final three with 20 seconds left, but it was too liittle, too late for the Cougars as they fell by the final eight-point margin.
Rogers hit 6-10 from outside for her season-best performance of 18 points. Young also scored 18 and added six rebounds. Jahnke scored 13, and Lofink added nine points, seven assists, and six steals.
Lakeland (9-8, 7-4 NACC) was led by Grayvold and Trista Barron with 20 each while Jacobson chipped in with 16.
The Cougars (6-10, 4-8 NACC) will travel to Rockford University on Wednesday night before returning home to host the Concordia Invitational Tournament next Friday and Saturday.
