Box Score Jan. 6, 2018 - It was grand larceny, pure and simple, and it was witnessed by all the fans in Geiseman Gymnasium. The Concordia-Chicago women's basketball team, seemingly left for dead early in the fourth quarter, roared back behind their pressure defense to catch the Lakeland Muskies at the end of the fourth quarter before barreling past them in the overtime for an 87-78 victory.

'In my 35 years of coaching, this victory is probably up there among my top five," said CUC head coach Rusty Rogers. "Our senior leadership really came through down the stretch; they just played relentlessly. I was hoping that if we could just get some momentum, we could make a run because we had gone the first three quarters without any."

Indeed, the Muskies got out of the starting gates early, bolting to a 9-0 lead before Courtney Lofink fed a streaking Crystal Corr for the Cougars' first points. That basket also resulted in Lofink's 500th career assist. It appeared for a while as if that might be CUC's only highlight for the opening 10 minutes as Lakeland remained hot and grabbed a 14-point lead at 26-12. However, CUC scored the final seven points of the quarters, including threes by Annika Rae and Taylor Jacobsen, to trail by 26-19. 

The brief momentum ended as the second quarter got underway. The Muskies' defense limited the Cougars to just 5-17 shooting in the quarter, including 0-4 on threes. Allison Barry's jumper pulled the Cougars to within 37-29, but CUC went scoreless over the final 2:30 as the Muskies added to their lead and went to the locker room with a 41-29 lead.

Concordia-Chicago's shooting stayed chilly in the third as they managed just 7-17. The Cougars crept to within eight points on a couple of occasions, but the visitors used a 12-6 run in the final minutes to take a commanding 61-45 lead entering the final 10 minutes.

Lakeland's Rachel Hasko scored the first points of the fourth as the Muskies grabbed their largest lead of the night. Unknown to the crowd at the time, a couple of steals by Lofink and Kayla Horlacher would set the tone for the stretch drive. Threes by Horlacher, T. Jacobsen and Horlacher again suddenly made it a nine-point game at the 6:30 mark. The Muskies looked to answer as Miranda Jacobson (no relation to the CUC tandem) scored six points, and Lakeland was back up by 13 with five minutes left.

A couple more steals helped the Cougars roar some more, and they went on a 9-0 run. A jumper by Corr, and two free throws each by the Jacobsen twins whittled down the lead, and T. Jacobsen's three from the right wing at the 2:20 mark began to raise the level of bedlam in Geiseman Gym. 

Maddy Doll's layup at the 1:56 mark temporarily slowed the rally, but Corr's jumper with just under a minute made it a four-point lead again for the Muskies. The Cougars' thievery was not yet over, though. T. Jacobsen's steal put CUC on the attack again, and a foul resulted in Lofink hitting on two free throws with 30 seconds remaining. The Cougars' press then made the Muskies cough it up in the backcourt. Erin Jacobsen came up with a steal, and it was sister Taylor who went in for the layup that tied the game with 18 ticks left. Concordia'Chicago then actually had a chance to win in regulation when Corr blocked a shot by Rachel Stankevich. The ball went out of bounds with CUC getting posession with just under two seconds left, but Horlacher's long three was off target, and the two teams prepared for an improbable overtime.

Twice in the first minute, the Muskies took a two-point lead. However, Rae's three with 3:44 remaining gave CUC its first lead of the entire game. Rae's three triggered a 12-0 run as the Cougars had all the momentum that Rogers had been seeking. T. Jacobsen hit a jumper and a three, and Corr's steal and layup put the score at 85-75 and effectively shut the door on the visitors.

While Rogers praised CUC's senior leadership, especially Lofink's leading the rally while carrying four fouls down the stretch, he also praised his two starting sophomores, Corr and Rae. "Crystal has had an incredible couple of weeks and has had stretches where she's playing like an All-American. And Annika is fitting in to her starter's role nicely. She's not afraid to hit the big shot as she did in the overtime tonight."

Held to just nine points over the first three quarters, T. Jacobsen finished with a game-high 30 points (10-16 FG, 4-7 threes, 6-6 FT), four assists and five steals. Corr also shot 10-16 en route to 22 points. Corr also had five blocks, three assists and two steals, although her seven rebounds ended her double-double streak at three games. Lofink finished with 11 points, four assists and nine steals. The Cougars had 21 steals collectively, 10 of them in the fourth quarter and the overtime.

Lakeland (7-6, 4-4 NACC) was led by Miranda Jacobson with 20 points while Stankevich added 19. The Muskies outrebounded the Cougars 49-38, led by Jacobson and Doll with 11 each.

Concordia-Chicago (10-2, 6-2 NACC) will shoot for a season-long winning streak of six games on Wednesday night when they travel to Milwaukee, WI to take on the MSOE Raiders.