SEATTLE – The Regis University women's basketball team fought hard in its first road game of the season at Brougham Pavilion on Friday but fell to Concordia University (Ore.), 76-65, to kick off the Seattle Pacific University Sodexo Tip-Off Classic.
 
How It Happened: With the Cavaliers possessing a 65-53 lead with 3:19 left in the fourth quarter, junior guard Olivia Vezaldenos sank a jumper to give Concordia a 67-53 lead, which proved to be all her team needed in the 40-minute contest.
 
A late 9-0 run by the Rangers kept Regis within striking distance, which kicked off with freshman guard Kali Murrell's trey with 1:36 to play. The run was capped off after senior forward Jaz'Myne Snipes nailed a pair of free throws with just 50 seconds left in the fourth.
 
Most of the final minute of play involved a lot of fouling, which CU took advantage of by hitting seven of its last 10 attempts. Freshman guard Mady Simmelink brought the game to its final score upon sinking her last two free throws with only 16 seconds remaining in the game.
 
The game was very close for the first three quarters, a span of time that saw nine lead changes and four ties. RU first grabbed the lead just 1:45 into the game when junior forward Whitney Jacob made a layup to give the Rangers a 4-3 advantage.
 
Regis led by as many as four on three occasions in the game. The second time happened when Snipes's jumper brought RU to a 9-5 lead with 4:20 left in the first quarter.
 
Though the Rangers went into the half down by a score of 34-31, Regis last took the lead, 39-38, with 4:43 left in the third on a jumper by freshman forward Sydney Speights.
 
RU grew the lead back to four, 46-42, on a jumper from Speights with the clock reading 2:00 remaining in the third.
 
However, this all occurred before a 7-0 run that gave the Cavaliers the lead and the game's final lead change. The run started on Simmelink's 3-pointer with 1:43 left in the third and brought Concordia within a point, 46-45. CU took the lead on two free throws from Vezaldenos just 18 seconds later, 47-46. A layup from junior forward Riley Friauf bookended the run, 49-46, with only 1:03 to go in the second-to-last quarter.
 
The Rangers' final points of the game came from a Snipes jumper, which cut the lead temporarily back to single digits, 74-65, with just 21 seconds to go in the game.
 
Game Notes: Murrell paced Regis with her game-high 22 points to go along with two rebounds and two assists. Jacob grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds while also contributing eight points, a share of the game-high three assists, and a block. Junior forward Grace O'Neill accumulated a game-high four blocks and also had two points, three rebounds and an assist.
 
Field-goal shooting from the paint took a hit the further the game went on as RU finished with a 21-for-57 (36.8 percent) performance from that area. In comparison, the Cavaliers made 24 of 56 (42.9 percent) from the paint. Additionally, the Rangers only went 7 for 25 (28.0 percent) from 3-point range, while Concordia hit 9 of 19 (47.4 percent) from the arc.
 
Up Next for the Rangers: Regis falls to 1-3 overall and will face host Seattle Pacific (0-4) at Brougham Pavilion on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. MT to close out the SPU Sodexo Tip-Off Classic.