Boxscore

DENVER, Colo. - Abby Rosenthal scored a game-high 29 points and grabbed 15 rebounds to lead Colorado Christian University to a 76-73 come-from-behind victory over Northwest Nazarene on Saturday night at the Regis Classic in Denver.

 

The Crusaders, now 5-3 on the season, led by as many as 26 after Briaunna King opened the second half with a lay-in to make it 53-27 in favor of NNU. 

 

However, the Cougars (4-4) then unleashed a 36-10 scoring run that tied the score at 63-63 with 5:26 to play.  During the run, the Crusaders shot just six-of-25 and committed five turnovers.

 

NNU would regain the lead and another King lay-in gave the Crusaders a 73-70 advantage with 1:48 left, but back-to-back Rosenthal buckets would sandwich an NNU turnover to give CCU the lead (74-73) for good with 73-seconds left to play.  The Crusaders would offer two three-pointers in the final 10 seconds to tie, but both shots missed the mark.

 

A tale of two halves, NNU opened the game scoring 51 first-half points on 20-of-43 shooting (46.5-percent) and dropped five-of-11 first-period three pointers.  However, the second half proved to be much different, shooting only 26-percent (10-38) and going just two-of-14 from the arc.

 

Rosenthal scored 17 of her 29 in the second-half, collecting a second-period double-double with 10 of her 15 rebounds coming after intermission.

 

Lindsay Brady led the Crusaders with 23 points, while Brittney Roggenkamp added 14 and King scored 13 and led the NNU effort on the glass with eight rebounds.  CCU out-rebounded the Crusaders 45-35.

 

Also in double-figures for CCU were Ainsley Barratt with 18 and Talmai Aguirre with 15.

 

The Crusaders will take next week off for finals and then return to the court on December 19th and 20th at the Cal Poly Pomona Tournament in California.