The College of DuPage women's basketball program fought valiantly and played the Joliet Junior College Wolves closely, but ended up on the wrong side of a 77-71 ballgame on Tuesday, Jan. 6.
The two teams traded baskets and runs the entire ballgame, but the Wolves continued to produce inside the paint and on the offensive glass, allowing them to pull away.
It was tied at six points early in the first quarter before a
Lexi Lopez three-pointer gave COD a slim lead before another tie score at eleven apiece. Later in the frame, a
Kaisje Pryor make from deep knotted it up at 14-all. Joliet went on a small run towards the end of the period before Lopez hit a floated as time expired to bring the score to 22-25, JJC. Lopez finished the first ten minutes with eleven points.
COD rallied back to even the contest at 32-32, thanks to plenty of steals forced by
Ayaani Gusman and
Cailey Salerno. Defense turned to offense with
Saniyya Harvey scoring three straight baskets. Gusman laced a three to stay even with JJC before a defensive stop and a Lopez connection from deep gave DuPage a 40-37 lead.
Erin Brown battled down low as time winded down in the half to keep a one-point COD lead at the break, 42-41.
DuPage's third-quarter success continued with an 8-2 run to start the period, before Joliet went on a 9-0 run of their own. With 3:21 remaining in the quarter, COD called a timeout, tied at 56. The Wolves tacked on two more baskets down the stretch but a tight inbound pass to a snaking Gusman kept it a one-posession game with COD down 59-60 entering the final ten minutes.
The Chaparrals' offense went quiet in the fourth, only logging eleven more points in the contest while Joliet started to pull away, slowly but surely. At the horn, the 77-71 final sunk DuPage to a 2-13 record. Lopez led all Chaps with 16 points while the trio of Gusman, Harvey and Brown each finished in double-digits. Pryor laced two more threes throughout the contest, bringing her game total to nine.
COD continues the season on the road at Harry S. Truman College on Saturday, Jan. 10 at 1:00 p.m. It will be the first matchup between the two programs since November of 2019, when DuPage coasted to a 65-47 win.
