Roosevelt Drowns Lake State Offense In Convincing Win

CHICAGO – The Roosevelt defense was in full force for 40 minutes as the Lakers drowned the Lake Superior State offense in a 77-45 win over their future Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rival Tuesday night at the Goodman Center.

It was a slow start for both teams with Roosevelt holding a slim 5-0 lead with 5:24 left in the first quarter when Lake Superior State scored its first points. However, the hosts turned on the gas late in the period with 15 points in the final three minutes to take a 22-5 lead after the first. In addition to holding Lake Superior State to just 1 of 10 shooting, Roosevelt also came up with eight steals in the first 10 minutes and forced 12 overall turnovers.

The defensive pressure continued in the second quarter with Roosevelt forcing 10 more turnovers, including four more steals to lead by 27 at halftime. Marie Outlay was a large part of the defensive intensity with all six of her steals coming in the first half. The Lakers' defense again kept Lake Superior State off the board for nearly five minutes in the second with 11 straight points to start the stanza.

It took more than three minutes for anyone to score in the third quarter, and Lake Superior State could not close the gap to less than 22 in the second half. Roosevelt held the visitors to just 27.3 percent shooting in the game, including 4 of 17 in the fourth quarter to put the exclamation point on the victory. After a slow start to the game, Roosevelt shot 43.3 percent from the field in the game, including 10 of 24 from behind the arc.

All three players who entered double figures for the Lakers came off the bench, led by Malou Savanna's career-best 19 points. The Danish sharpshooter scored 10 of her points in the third quarter, when she made all four of her shots, including a pair from deep. Jayla Turchin added 14 points with both of her 3-pointers coming at the end of the first quarter to push Roosevelt to that 17-point lead. Grace Beyer knocked down all three of her 3-point attempts and finished with 11 points on the evening.

Although the starters didn't carry the scoring load, they did more than enough to propel the Lakers to the win. Jalyssa Carrasco dished out nine assists and also had four steals while Kristen Keys scored nine points and added a team-high eight rebounds. In addition to her six steals, Outlay had five assists and Kencia Levasseur had a balanced game with six point, six rebounds and four assists.

Tuesday was Roosevelt's first win over an NCAA foe since Nov. 18, 2019 when it took down Illinois Tech, but it was the Lakers' first win over a Division II opponent. The Lakers are now 1-4 all-time against Division II teams with three of those five games coming against future GLIAC opponents over the past two seasons.

Roosevelt returns to the court Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. with a crosstown trip to face Saint Xavier in a Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference contest.