Box Score CHICAGO – Roosevelt put up a fight for 40 minutes Wednesday night at the Goodman Center in a 75-61 setback against Northern Michigan in a non-conference game against their future rival in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Although the Wildcats continued to threaten to put the game out of reach, the Lakers (1-4) always had a response to keep themselves in striking distance. Northern Michigan opened the second quarter with a 7-0 spurt in about 90 seconds to increase its lead to 14, but Roosevelt settled down and cut the deficit to nine by the middle of the quarter. The same happened in the fourth quarter when the Wildcats took a 16-point lead only for Roosevelt to trim it back to eight with 3:23 left in the contest.
The shots began to fall more consistently again for Roosevelt as the Lakers shot 44 percent from the field in the game. In particular, they found their mojo from deep by connecting on 11 of 24 attempts from behind the arc. Kristen Keys knocked down 3 of 4 from 3-point range and Jalyssa Carrasco added a pair of triples as well.
Kencia Levasseur led the team with 12 points on 6 of 8 shooting while also pacing the Lakers with six rebounds. Brilan McCory chipped in 11 points while Keys had nine and Carrasco scored eight. Lauren Pawlyshyn also had a breakout game with six points, her first collegiate points, which came on her 19th birthday. Ella Pritchard dished out five assists and secured five rebounds despite a rough shooting day.
McCory came out hot in the first quarter with seven points, including a 3-pointer that seemed to relax the Lakers. The Wildcats scored the first seven points of the game before McCory's 3, a free throw from Pritchard and a Marie Outlay layup clawed Roosevelt back into the game. Northern Michigan outscored Roosevelt 21-14 in the first quarter before the Lakers played the Wildcats to nearly a draw in the other three quarters.
Roosevelt will head to Indianapolis to face Butler on Monday morning at 11 in an exhibition contest against the NCAA Division I Bulldogs. The Lakers will then return back to Chicago on Tuesday to face Holy Cross in their first Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference game of the season.
