RIVER FOREST, ILL. — The Concordia University Chicago Cougars hit the home court for the first time since November 11th as they took on the Principia Panthers. Despite a hard fought effort, the Cougars fell to the Panthers 60-51.
INSIDE THE BOX
- Alexis Desjarlait (Red Lake, Minn.) made her first start of the season and led the Cougars with 13 points.
- Mikalah Ellis (Chicago, Ill.) followed behind with 12 points and seven rebounds.
HOW IT HAPPENED
FIRST HALF
The game started out slow as the first points of the game didn't come until nearly two minutes in with the Panthers striking first. A retaliation bucket from Ellis in the paint would even things up, but the Cougars would quickly fall back into a deficit. With the Panthers jumping ahead 8-3, the Cougars would be forced to take a timeout. As the game went on the Cougars would be trail for the remainder of the first quarter before a steal from Alisyn MacGregor (Loves Park, Ill.) turned to a fast break layup for Khaliah Reid (Naperville, Ill.) would bring the score within one.
Tight Cougar defense held the Panthers to six points in the second quarter would leave the Cougars trailing 26-20 at the half.
SECOND HALF
With it officially hitting crunch time, an early layup from MacGregor would cut their deficit down to four, the smallest margin for the remainder of the game. A late third quarter three from Desjarlait would jumpstart the momentum for the Cougars heading into the final ten minutes.
Despite some huge momentum shifting moments like an and one from Melia Perry (Plainfield, Ill.) and another three from Desjarlait, the Cougars would fall to the Panthers.
The Cougars kick off conference play on Saturday as they head down the street to take on Dominican University. Tipoff is set for 1:00pm. Coverage can be found at cucougars.com/coverage.
