Roosevelt Falls Into St. Francis' Trap In Loss

CHICAGO – The St. Francis zone defense suffocated Roosevelt effectively Wednesday night as the Lakers dropped an 85-55 decision to the Fighting Saints in a Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference matchup at the Goodman Center.

Roosevelt could not have asked for a better start to the game, scoring the first four points and holding St. Francis to just two points in the first four minutes of the contest. However, things began to go sideways for the Lakers (8-13, 6-10 CCAC) after Amelia McNutt knocked down a 3 to put the Lakers ahead 12-5 with 4:50 left in the first quarter. The Fighting Saints responded with a 9-0 run to close the quarter with a two-point advantage then began to close in on the Lakers with a debilitating zone defense.

The Lakers were only credited with 14 turnovers, leading to 14 points for the Fighting Saints, but Roosevelt could not find a solution to the St. Francis zone. Roosevelt shot worse than 30 percent from the field in each of the final three quarters and finished the game shooting just 28 percent from the floor. It was especially tough sledding from behind the arc as Roosevelt connected on just six of its 28 attempts from 3-point range in the game.

St. Francis didn't shoot it too well in the game, either, but the Fighting Saints owned the glass and made the Lakers pay for giving up second chances. Roosevelt allowed 21 offensive rebounds, leading to 27 second-chance points, and lost the overall rebounding battle 59-37. When the Lakers did recoup their own misses, they failed to capitalize, scoring just two points off 11 offensive boards. Jayla Turchin and McNutt combined for half of Roosevelt's rebounds with Turchin securing 10 for her sixth outing of at least 10 rebounds in 18 appearances this season.

McNutt added nine rebounds with a fearless attitude toward crashing the glass against the much-larger St. Francis lineup. The graduate student scored 11 points, leaving her just one rebound shy of her first-career double-double. She settled for tying her career high in rebounds while Turchin and her team-high 14 points secured a sixth double-double this season.

Roosevelt returns to action Saturday at 1 p.m. when it travels to Deerfield to face Trinity International. The Lakers are looking to avenge an earlier home loss to the Trojans this season when they faced TIU without Taylor Treat and Turchin, who both missed the game due to illness.