RIVER FOREST, Ill. – Building off of their first Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) win earlier in the week, the Concordia University Chicago women's basketball team put together one of the best defensive efforts in the long history of the program on Saturday afternoon, defeating the Alverno College Inferno 60-24.

Behind the box score:

• The Cougars allowed just six first half points, the lowest in school history.
• In total 14 different players scored for the Cougars.
• The Cougars forced 27 Inferno turnovers
• Jaylene Wade and Prentciss Gates led the offense with nine points each.
• The win is the fifth straight in the series between the two schools, and was the largest margin of victory for CUC.
• The Cougars scored 40 of their 60 points in the paint, and scored 37 points off of turnovers

The Cougars got things opened up in a hurry when Ava Gardner turned a Bailey Steinkamp steal into the opening points of the game. CUC kept the pressure up defensively, scoring the first 14 points of the game all off of forced Alverno turnovers. The run kept going into the later stages of the first quarter. The 17-0 run was culminated by a Sarah Ludwig three-point play. Alverno got one late basket but trailed CUC 23-2 after the opening quarter.

CUC kept the pressure and intensity up in the second quarter. Gates continued her strong defensive showing, with a steal early in the quarter which resulted in a CUC layup and a 27-2 lead. The outpouring of offense continued midway through the quarter with fast-break layups by Josey Kahl and Sydney Lloyd. The Cougars got one final bucket in the half by Janie Ternes to extend their advantage to 40-6 at the half.

Concordia continued their strong showing in the third, Sarah Ludwig extended the CUC lead to 45, midway through and CUC would lead 52-13 after three.

Head Coach Lauren Martin was able to use her whole bench in the fourth, as the Cougars built their lead up to as many as 47 points on a Lloyd layup. CUC would close out the dominating win 60-24.

With the win, the Cougars improve to 3-3 on the season and 2-1 in the NACC. Alverno falls to 1-5 overall and 0-2 in the NACC.

The Cougars will take a short break from NACC action, when they head to Iowa to take on Central College on Tuesday night. Opening tip is scheduled for 5:30pm. Links to game coverage can be found at cucougars.com/coverage. You can also keep up with the team on Twitter @CUCWbball.