Box Score CHICAGO – A late offensive foul spoiled Roosevelt's chance at a comeback as Indiana University Northwest held on for an 82-75 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference victory over the Lakers on Wednesday night at the Goodman Center.
Roosevelt trailed by 14 points with 8:43 left in the second half, but made one of its patent-pending comebacks. The Lakers went on a 15-1 run over the next 3:31 to tie the game, bringing the near-capacity crowd to its feet several times during the rally. They made all five of their shots during that stretch and a pair of free throws as well to tie the game at 67.
Even after the RedHawks scored the next five points, the Lakers battled back and cut the deficit to one twice. The second time, freshman Julio Montes II made a 3-pointer with 29 seconds left and quickly fouled an Indiana Northwest player. A split at the free-throw line gave the Lakers a chance to draw up the winning play, but an offensive foul called away from the ball on the set-up earned Roosevelt a 14th turnover and the RedHawks hit free throws down the stretch to win.
The Lakers again got off to a hot start at home with Ayo Ajiboye draining a 3-pointer on the opening possession after collecting an offensive rebound a few seconds earlier. That set the tone as Roosevelt scored 11 of the first 15 points in the game and held onto the lead for the first quarter of the contest. Yet the RedHawks responded with a 14-5 run to take their first lead of the contest then closed the half on a 10-0 run over the final 3:12 of the stanza to take a six-point lead into the locker room.
Roosevelt cut the halftime deficit down to two in the early stages of the second half before Indiana Northwest scored 13 straight points to take its largest lead of the contest. The Lakers went nearly five minutes between scoring during which they missed four shots and committed four turnovers. It was a rare period of scoreless basketball in the half as both teams shot better than 53 percent in the second half and hit exactly half of their 3-point attempts.
Montes scored a season-best 26 points in his first career start with 17 of those points coming in the second half. Ajiboye added 14 points and 10 rebounds while Spencer chipped in 10 points for the Lakers. Chima Nwosu scored seven of his nine points in the second half as well as he was an efficient 4 of 5 from the field.
The Lakers return to action Saturday in Davenport, Iowa against the St. Ambrose Fighting Bees with tipoff scheduled for 3 p.m. between the CCAC foes.
