RIVER FOREST, ILL. – The Concordia University Chicago Cougars played host to the Wisconsin Lutheran Warriors in their first home conference matchup of the season. The Cougars quickly found themselves in a rut and ultimately would fall 90-70.
INSIDE THE BOX
- Jacob Collicott (Lafayette, Ind.) led in points with 11 as the only Cougar scoring in double digits.
- Following closely behind was Kieran Heller (Whitefish Bay, Wis.) with nine as the senior went 3-6 from the three-point line.
- Joel Watts (Homewood, Ill.) went to work defensively picking up six steals and six rebounds while tacking on seven total points.
FIRST HALF
The Warriors struck first with a quick layup off the tipoff. The Cougars responded with an offensive putback from
Sean Beckman (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) to level things out. A few more back and forth points would quickly come to an end when back-to-back turnovers would result in the Warriors taking a five point lead. Fresh out of a timeout, a huge three from Beckman would cut the deficit down to two. With layups from
Jordan Matthews (Chicago, Ill.) and
William Bishop-Green (Chicago, Ill.) the Cougars started to dig themselves out of a lull. Off an inbound on the baseline, Heller secured his first three of the night on the wing to cut the Warrior's lead down to two.
As the Warriors continued to be an offensive threat the Cougars found themselves to be down by as much as 18 heading into halftime.
SECOND HALF
Needing to find an offensive spark, the Cougars came into the second half and capitalized on a three from
Emanuel Wilson (Wheaton, Ill.). Hoping to use the spark from Wilson to ignite a fire, the Cougars continued to shoot from behind the arc but would miss back-to-back threes followed by back-to-back missed layups and gave the Warriors the chance to jump out to a 23-point lead.
Despite fast and strong defense, the Cougars were just unable to get shots to fall. With the Warriors jumping out to a 28-point lead, a three from freshman
Ian Ravagnie (Huntley, Ill.) would break the dry spell and jumpstart the Cougar comeback. Additional second half buckets from Bishop-Green, Collicott, Watts, Ravagnie,
Justin Greenlee (Brown Deer, Wis.),
Liam Cameron (Ventura, Calif.), and
Ben Gordos (Manchester, England) would chip away at the Warrior lead.
With the Cougars unable to ignite the fire needed after struggling to find their offensive burst, they would fall 90-70 to the Warriors. The Cougars take a week long break in gameplay but will continued Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play on Saturday, December 9
th as they head to Madison, Wis. to take on the Edgewood Eagles. Tipoff is slated for 1:00pm with coverage available at cucougars.com/coverage.
