Box Score Jan. 3, 2018 - The Concordia-Chicago women's basketball team showed no signs of weariness with two games in 24 hours. The Cougars followed up last night's win over Dominican University with a brisk-paced 89-51 win over visiting Blackburn College this evening in non-conference play at Geiseman Gymnasium.
Tonight's fourth consecutive win began with long-range shooting setting the tone for the Cougars. Five different players hit from beyond the arc as CUC built a 23-10 lead after one quarter.
Taylor Jacobsen's three opened the scoring, and
Erin Jacobsen hit from deep in the final 16 seconds of the quarter. In-between, it was CUC's bench getting into the act as
Lisa Lubben,
Michaela Thornton and
Kayla Horlacher all knocking down the triples.
The Cougars' scoring went inside for much of the second quarter. T. Jacobsen worked into the paint for a couple buckets from close in, and E. Jacobsen found her way underneath to capitalize on a three-point play.
Crystal Corr's basket gve CUC a 20-point lead with 1:45 left, and
Courtney Lofink and T. Jacobsen closed the half with free throws as the home team took a 24-point lead to the locker room.
More threes opened the second half for the Cougars as
Annika Rae and Horlacher connected. Later in the quarter, Thornton contributed seven points to a 9-0 run as Concordia-Chicago grabbed its largest lead at 64-29. The third quarter ended with the Cougars leading 69-35.
The fourth quarter saw many of the team's younger players get valuable minutes on the floor. The Cougars' lead reached its peak at 47 points (85-38) on Horlacher's three, and CUC ended the evening with 11 threes and 38 percent shooting from downtown.
T. Jacobsen led the way with 23 points on 8-12 shooting overall. Corr controlled the interior as she recorded her fourth game in a row with a double-double - 13 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Horlacher added 12 points on 4-7 shooting, and E. Jacobsen scored a season-high 10 points. Lofink ran the offense splendidly, following her 10-assist game last night with 13 helpers tonight.
Blackburn (1-10) was led by Kate Smith with 18 points (four threes), while Savannah Kruse added 16 points. The Beavers' offense was frustrated all night by the Cougars' pressing defense which caused 26 turnovers. Twenty resulted in CUC steals, led by E. Jacobsen's six.
The Cougars (9-2) will return to conference play this Saturday when they host Lakeland University. The game is scheduled for 4:15 p.m., approximately 30-40 minutes after the men's game concludes.
