Lions Too Much for Eagles, 81-58

Box Score 

(2/12/08 - Women's Basketball) IRVINE - A valiant effort by host Concordia was not enough to provide an upset of #4-ranked Vanguard in a 81-58 win for the Lions, Tuesday evening in Golden State Atheltic Conference play.

The memory of a 90-47 loss in Costa Mesa last month had not left the minds of the Eagles as they took their home court. The Eagles showed plenty of resilience and an attitude of revenge as the opening moments of the game played out.

After struggling to solve the Vanguard zone trap the first time the teams played, the Eagles found a few holes with crisp passing and kept pace with the high-powered Lions early on. Leading scorer Kayanna Nichols had a pair of three-pointers early on, the second of which gave the Eagles a brief 13-11 lead at the 11:35 mark.

The Lions scored the next seven points, but the Eagles rebounded and cut the gap to just one after a steal by Karen Carney and jumper by Priscilla Angeloni and were still down just 23-19 after a Carney jumper with 4:18 before the break.

That, however, was as close as the Eagles would get as the Lions began to put distance between the two teams. Jessica Richter capped off a quick 8-0 run to build a 31-19 lead and the gap stretched to 41-27 at the intermission.

Though the Eagles slowed down the Lions in the second half and held them to a 42.4% shooting clip after the break, the Eagles could only hit on 12-of-31 attempts from the field in the second half and 1-of-9 from beyond the arc.

Richter led all scorers with 19 points for Vanguard (17-3, 13-1 GSAC) while Lauren Gregory chipped in with 13 points and six rebounds. Nichols and Carney had 12 points each and combined for 12 rebounds while Angeloni and Wallace tossed in 10 points apiece with Wallace leading all players with 11 rebounds.

Concordia (9-15, 3-11 GSAC) hits the road this Saturday, February 16 to take on Fresno Pacific with tip-off set for 5:30 p.m.