Feb. 11, 2017 - With one week to go in the 2016-17 regular season for women's basketball, the battle for positioning continues in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference standings. After a disappointing loss to Benedictine in their last game, the Concordia-Chicago Cougars were faced with another tough task today as they hosted the Wisconsin Lutheran Warriors, a team just ahead of them in the standings. A loss today would have inflicted serious damage to the Cougars' hopes for a first-round NACC tournament home game, but CUC refused to go down without a fight. Trailing for most of the fourth quarter, the Cougars' defense made some huge plays down the stretch and stole a 73-70 victory at Geiseman Gymnasium.

The game started out as a battle of the three-point shots. Caitlin Knueppel hit the first one of the day to give WLC a 5-3 lead. However, after Miranda Rogers tied the game, Taylor Jacobsen and Annika Rae connected from downtown to give CUC a five-point edge. The Warriors battled back as they hit five more threes in the quarter, four by freshman Tierney Woodward off the bench, but the Cougars countered as Lauren Orr and Rogers found the mark from outside. Crystal Corr then converted Erin Jacobsen's feed for a layup to make the score CUC 25, WLC 21 after one quarter.

A three by Rogers early in the second quarter put the lead for the home team at seeven, but the Warriors battled back as they began to score some points closer to the basket. Coreana Carson's layup with 2:08 remaining brought WLC within a point, but a three-point play by T. Jacobsen allowed the Cougars to keep the momentum and the lead. Orr's three and a trio of free throws let the Cougars close out the half and take a 44-38 lead into the break.

The Cougars held their six-point lead for the early minutes of the third quarter before the Warriors heated up from the outside again. Wynonah Filla and Carson connected to bring WLC back even with CUC. From there, the lead exchanged hands a few times,with a pair of threes by Rogers answering the Warriors' scores. However, with the Cougars leading 56-54, Knueppel's three catapulted the Warriors into the lead again. Then, following a turnover in the waning seconds of the quarter, Carson threw up a desperation three from in front of the WLC bench that banked in at the buzzer. Wisconsin Lutheran led 60-56 with one quarter left to play.

The scoring became harder to come by as the fourth quarter began. A free throw by WLC opened the scoring before T. Jacobsen scored on consecutive jumpers to narrow the gap to 61-60. However, Maddy Elrod scored WLC's next six points to give the visitors a 67-63 lead at the four-minute mark.

Concordia-Chicago's defense took over at that point as the visitors would not score another field goal. Free throws by Courtney Lofink and Sarah Smith narrowed the gap to 67-65 Then, at the 1:20 mark, T. Jacobsen was fouled. She missed the first free throw but made the second for a one-point WLC lead, setting up the play of the game. On the ensuing inbounds, Lofink knocked the ball loose from the Warriors' player. The ball was going out of bounds, but Lofink hustled to save the ball and spotted T. Jacobsen at the free-throw line. Lofink's pass was perfect as T. Jacobsen had an easy layup to give CUC its first lead of the fourth. Free throws by Smith, Lofink and E. Jacobsen would close out the game as the Cougars pulled out a crucial victory.

The Cougars held the Warriors to just 2-16 shooting in the fourth quarter and 23-63 (37 percent) for the game. Meanwhile, CUC shot 48 percent on 23-48. T. Jacobsen led the Cougars with 19 points while Rogers scored 17 on 6-7 shooting (5-6 on threes),

Concordia-Chicago (14-9, 13-5 NACC) will look to move closer to their goal on Wednesday night when they take on Dominican University at the Igini Sports Forum. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.