Late Roosevelt Rally Falls Short Against Illinois Tech

CHICAGO – A Matt Myers 3-pointer cruelly rimmed out at the buzzer to send Roosevelt to a heartbreaking 63-60 loss to Illinois Tech on Saturday night at the Goodman Center.

The Lakers (1-2) trailed by six with five minutes left, but slowly fought their way back into the game with timely stops and crisp offense. Lucas Jordan knocked down a corner 3 with 43 seconds left to bring Roosevelt within a point then Myers was called for a foul at the other end. After two free throws restored the Scarlet Hawks' three-point advantgae, the Lakers stayed patient in their offense. However, as the Lakers were running out of time, Myers had no choice but to attempt the 3-pointer from in front of the Roosevelt bench right before the horn sounded. It initially bounced off the back of the rim then came down and rolled for a few seconds before falling off the iron.

It was a miss indictative of the rough shooting night for the Lakers, who made just six of their 25 attempts from behind the arc in the game. Roosevelt shot 38.5 percent for the game, but it made up for those misses with some strong rebounding on the offensive end. The Lakers came down with 16 offensive rebounds in the game, led by three each from Ayo Ajiboye, Chima Nwosu and Yuri Swinford. The effort on the offensive glass was part of Roosevelt's 41-32 edge in rebounding, which is a large reason why the Lakers looked so good in the first half.

Ajiboye set the tempo for the game on the opening possession by grabbing his own miss and scoring through contact to complete a three-point play. Roosevelt grabbed four offensive rebounds in the first four minutes of the game as it led for the entire first half against their crosstown foe. The Lakers went on a 9-0 run over the course of roughly four minutes to build their lead into double figures then a few minutes later cranked out a 12-0 run to push the advantage to a game-high 17. However, Roosevelt scored just two points over the final 3:51 of the first half to let its advantage shrink to just four points at halftime.

It took Illinois Tech about five minutes in the second half to take its first lead of the game, but the Lakers never let the Scarlet Hawks fly away with the game. Ajiboye scored 12 of his team-best 19 points in the second half and Myers added another seven points in the second half to keep the game close. It felt like the Lakers might have seized some momentum with 8:49 remaining when Ajiboye rejected a shot at one end and Myers nailed the corner 3-pointer at the other side in transition to tie the game at 49. Yet that ended up being the last time Roosevelt would be tied with Illinois Tech for the remainder of the game.

The Lakers return to action Wednesday night in their second CCAC matchup of the season as they host Indiana Northwest at 7:30 p.m. as the second half of a doubleheader with the women's team. The twinbill begins Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Goodman Center.