Ice Cold Offense Dooms Lakers At SXU

CHICAGO – Roosevelt's offense went dormant for too long Wednesday as the Lakers fell at St. Xavier 89-64 in a Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference matchup in Chicago.

The Lakers (11-14, 8-11 CCAC) shot just 31.7 percent from the field for the game, but they were even worse in the first half. Roosevelt made just 25 percent of its attempts in the first 20 minutes, but all of them came off the hands of Jayla Turchin. The junior scored 22 of the Lakers' 23 points in the first half, shooting 7 of 11 from the field and 2 of 5 from deep while her teammates missed all 17 of their shots, including 10 3-point attempts.

St. Xavier adapted in the second half and took Turchin out of the gameplan for Roosevelt, so it turned to its captain Amelia McNutt. The graduate student scored all 24 of her points in the second half, surpassing 700 career points in a Lakers uniform. After missing all four of her shots in the first half, McNutt went 8 of 13 from the field in the second half and sank four of her six attempts from behind the arc.

It was not enough, however, as the Lakers struggled to defend and score inside the paint against the Cougars. St. Xavier turned 19 offensive rebounds into 32 second-chance points and outscored the Lakers 58-20 inside the paint. The Cougars finished with a 53-35 advantage on the glass and shot a tick above 49 percent from the field.

For much of the first quarter, it looked like Turchin was going to be able to keep pace with the Cougars by herself while the Lakers figured out their offense. She went on a personal 7-0 run over 48 seconds near the midway point of the quarter to give Roosevelt its only lead of the game. Turchin ended up scoring the first 11 points of the game for Roosevelt before Meghan Urbanski converted a free throw with 1:12 left to join Turchin in the scoring column.

Turchin scored all nine points the Lakers mustered in the second quarter as a six-point deficit ballooned to an 18-point margin at halftime. It took until the middle of the third quarter for the Lakers to start looking like themselves with McNutt and Urbanski both draining their two 3-point attempts apiece in the quarter. However, Roosevelt was 3 of 11 on 2-point attempts in the third quarter before St. Xavier led by as many as 30 in the fourth.

In addition to Urbanski's seven points, Gabby Beggs scored three and Erionna Moore hit a third-quarter free throw to round out the scoring for the Lakers. Moore did finish with 10 rebounds to lead the Lakers and also led the team with four assists in the game.

The Lakers finish the regular season Saturday at home for a Senior Day matchup against Governors State at 1 p.m. Prior to tipoff, the Lakers will honor their four seniors – Carmen Barnes, Amelia McNutt, Erionna Moore and Meghan Urbanski.