Jan. 25, 2019 – Tonight's first-round women's game in the 68
th annual Concordia Invitational Tournament paired the Concordia-Chicago women's basketball team (6-12) against the host school, Concordia University Ann Arbor (4-19). A packed Cardinals' Field House saw the home team feed off the energy and take charge in the second quarter en route to a 68-48 win over the Cougars.
Sam Bloom's layup answered Ann Arbor's opening bucket of the game, but a couple of turnovers helped the Cardinals score twice in transition, and the home team grabbed a 7-2 lead, forcing a timeout. The Cardinals extended their lead on a three-point play before
Michaela Thornton's long three brought CUC back to within 10-5.
Crystal Corr followed with a jumper, but CUAA used fa couple of second-chance opportunities to extend their lead. A three by Jerrica Neal late in the quarter gave the Cardinals a 10-point lead, but Corr's jumper from the key closed out the first 10 minutes with the home team leading 21-13.
The Cardinals outscored the Cougars 8-0 over the first five minutes of the quarter before a free throw by
Sarah Ludwig finally broke the ice. Ann Arbor made it a 12-1 run for the quarter before Corr hit CUC's first points from the field at the 2:58 mark.
Deja Southall added a bucket on a running hook shot from the right side, but the Cougars found themselves staring up at a large halftime deficit, 39-18.
Corr led CUC with eight first-half points on 4-6 shooting, but the rest of the team was a combined 3-22 from the field, including 1-9 from three-point range. But a bigger problem for the Cougars was the Cardinals' 55 percent shooting, much of it on the strength of 32 points in the paint.
Starting the third quarter, CUC held CUAA scoreless for nearly four minutes while the Cougars trimmed five points off their deficit. Concordia-Chicago got to the foul line early and often in the quarter, making good on 11 of 16, and Thornton caught fire with six straight points, including her second triple of the game. However, Ann Arbor was able to answer over the latter part of the quarter, and the teams went to the fourth with CUAA maintaining a 53-36 lead.
The fourth quarter produced no big runs as the Cardinals stayed in the lead by a comfortable distance. The Cougars got late field goals from Corr and
Jada Dixon that enable them to avert a season low in field goals with 14 (the previous low of 13 coming versus Wisconsin Lutheran College in December).
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
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Crystal Corr led the Cougars with 15 points on 7-11 shooting from the field.
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Sam Bloom shot a stellar 8-8 at the free=throw line, accounting for most of her 10 points
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Michaela Thornton finished with 11 points and handed out three assists.
· CUAA finished with a 48-34 rebounding edge and scored 46 points in the paint.
The Cougars will tangle with Concordia University Wisconsin in Saturday's consolation game at 12:30 (ET) p.m. This will be the third meeting of the season between the two NACC rivals, although the game will be treated as a non-conference meeting.
