MILWAUKEE, Wis. - The Rockford University women's basketball team opened the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference portion of its schedule on Saturday with a road trip to face the MSOE Raiders. The Regents have faired well against the Raiders since the two schools joined the NACC. Prior to Saturday's game Rockford held a 7-1 record against MSOE. However, the Raiders were able to buck the trend and slip past the Regents on Saturday with a 71-67 win.
The game got off to a great start for the Regents as they led for nearly the entire first half. After MSOE scored the first basket of the game, Rockford proceeded to score 13 of the next 16 points to take an early 13-5 lead, its largest of the half. The Raiders slowly chipped away at the lead for the remainder of the half and would eventually take a 36-34 lead into the break.
The second half followed the exact same pattern as first. Rockford opened the second half on a 10-0 run to regain the lead at 44-36. The Regents would eventually push their lead to a game-high 11 points off an Arielle Nichols (Tampa, Fla./Land O'Lakes) layup with 14:19 remaining. However, following the layup Rockford went cold from the field scoring just 4 points over the next nine plus minutes allowing the Raiders to go on 22-4 run and take a 62-55 lead. Rockford was able chop the lead down to just a one-possession game on four separate occasions throughout the rest of the game, but MSOE had an answer each and every time scoring on its very next possession to push it back to a multiple possession game. The Regents final chance came with less than 10 seconds remaining when senior Erin Ryczek (South Beloit, Ill./Hononegah) knocked down a three-pointer to get her team back within three points. However, with just a few seconds remaining MSOE connected on a game-clinching free throw to seal the 61-57 Raider victory.
Senior Lindsay Lengjak (Roscoe, Ill./Hononegah) scored in double-digits once again for the Regents on Saturday. Lengjak scored a team-high 15 points despite taking just 8 shots from the field. The senior has now scored in double-figures in all four of her team's games this season and leads the NACC in scoring averaging 19.2 points per game.
Fellow seniors Destiny Chaney (Belleville, Ill./O'Fallon Township) and Erin Ryczek each scored 12 points in the loss. Chaney added 3 steals, 2 rebounds and an assist to compliment her season-high 12 points. Ryczek rounded out her afternoon with 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 blocked shot.
Jessica Bjerning (Wauconda, Ill./Mundelein) just missed her first double-double of the year. The senior scored a season-high 11 points and snagged a team-high 8 rebounds.
Katie Clark (Rock City, Ill./Dakota) scored 9 points with 2 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block off the bench for Rockford.
The women's basketball team returns to the court on Wednesday, December 4th at Dominican University. Tip-off is at 7:00 p.m.
