CHICAGO – Jake Ludwig scored a career-high and single-game school record 42 points to spark a furious late rally by the Roosevelt men's basketball team, but the Lakers ran out of time in a 91-88 road loss to St. Francis (Ill.) at the Sullivan Center on Wednesday afternoon.
Ludwig was a player possessed to start the new calendar year. The senior from St. Charles sank a career-best 15 shots on only 20 attempts, setting another school record for field goals made in a game, en route to the most points scored by a player in the CCAC thus far this season. His showing was also the seventh-best scoring output by an NAIA Division II player to date in 2018-19.
The fourth-year guard made a career-high-tying five three-pointers on eight tries to go with a team-high seven rebounds in 30 minutes of work.
Grant Gibson continued his stellar play with 16 points, while Jake Asquini added 14 points for the Lakers (10-7, 4-3 CCAC), who were still without injured senior forward Chandler Fuzak.
Terrion Howard scored 26 points, icing the game late at the free throw line, to pace the Fighting Saints (11-6, 5-2 CCAC).
The two teams entered the contest with identical records in both regular season and conference play, and they played nearly even for much of the contest while shooting the ball at close to identical clips.
The game was a one-possession contest for almost all of the first half, save for a four-point RU lead and a six-point USF advantage that were both short-lived. The Lakers were able to enter intermission nursing a one-point lead.
The second half appeared to follow the same script early on, but the host Saints flipped the script by going on a 10-0 run that built an eight-point lead and soon grew to 11 points during the period's middle stages.
Nine points from Ludwig fueled a 10-2 Roosevelt burst that made it a three-point affair, and the Lakers continued to stay within striking distance before Howard made consecutive three-point shots to bring the Saints back ahead by eight.
Pietro Badalassi made a pair of free throws to extend the Saints' lead to eight with 51 seconds left when Ludwig worked his late-game magic.
Ludwig made a three with 39 ticks on the clock to trim the deficit down to five. Following two free throws made by Howard, Ludwig found Asquini for a quick trey that got the Lakers within four.
Cole Micek split a pair at the charity stripe, and after a foul Asquini made a pair of his own to reduce the margin down to three.
Howard was able to escape the pressure and force a foul to get back to the line to make two free throws, and five seconds later Ludwig rushed up and made another major shot from behind the arc to make the game an 87-85 contest with 12 seconds left.
Kyle Bumbalough fouled Howard with a little more than nine ticks left in regulation to stop the clock and send the Saints' leading scorer back to the stripe to connect two more times for a four-point lead.
Ludwig rushed down and missed a three that was rebounded by Gibson and sent back to Ludwig, and the second time was the charm as the senior guard connected to make it a one-point game and become the first Laker in modern history to score 40 points or more.
Ludwig fouled Howard, who made another two free throws to finish 10-for-10 at the charity stripe, and Kevin Day's last-second heave from across the court did not leave his hands in time and missed the mark to allow USF to escape Roosevelt's furious rally with the decision.
"Our defense wasn't there today and we missed some easy shots," Roosevelt head coach Joe Griffin said. "Give St. Francis credit for making their free throws when we were coming back and holding us off when we were right there.
"Ludwig was sensational and kept us in it until the final horn," Griffin said of the All-American guard and the school's all-time leading scorer. "I wish we all could have done a little bit more to back up his brilliant scoring day."
Roosevelt hosts 22nd-ranked Calumet St. Joseph at the Goodman Center this Saturday, Jan. 5 at 3 p.m.
