CHICAGO – Despite a double-double from sophomore forward Jeremiah Jackson, the Roosevelt men's basketball team fell behind early to 25th-ranked Madonna and couldn't recover from the early deficit in a 66-53 loss at the Lillian and Larry Goodman Center.
Jackson led the Lakers (9-6) with 20 points and a career-high 19 rebounds.
Travis Schuba led all scorers with 30 points for the Crusaders (10-5).
The Lakers suffered through turnover woes, committing 24 miscues, while converting just eight of 23 free throw attempts.
Madonna would go up by 15 a little over nine minutes into the game. Roosevelt would cut the Crusader advantage down to five, but Madonna would rattle off a run of its own and kept its lead in double figures for most of the second half.
Roosevelt head coach Joe Griffin talked about his team's nine-day layoff and what the keys were in the game.
"I definitely think we were rusty, especially on the offensive end," said Griffin. "If you hold Madonna to 43 percent shooting, that's pretty good. We outrebounded them. But the story of the game is our free throw shooting and our turnovers. We are a sloppy offensive team right now. We can't turn it over and we have to convert at the line."
Sunday's loss was the first defeat inside the Goodman Center for the Lakers.
Roosevelt hosts CCAC rival Judson on Thursday, Jan. 3 at 7:30 p.m. inside the Goodman Center.
