Women's Basketball Storms Back to Get Program's First Ever Win

(Lima, OH)-- The Cleary Cougar women's basketball team had a short bench due to injuries, but that didn't stop the Cougars, as they overcame a 13 point second half deficit to win the program's first ever game against the UNOH Racers.

Amelia Storm and Amy Jackson helped the Cougars to build an early 5-2 lead, but the Racers pressure and three point shooting calmed the hosts down, and UNOH took a 28-17 lead after the first quarter.  Cleary started to limit the turnovers, and climbed back into the game, as they outscored UNOH by five points in the second quarter, and trailed by six points at the halftime break, 41-35.

After UNOH started the second half strong, the Racers would build a 13 point lead in the early goings of the half, the largest lead of the game.  It would go from bad to worse, when Amy Jackson went down with an apparent ankle injury, causing the Cougars to play the rest of the game with five players.  Cleary would regroup, and narrowed the gap back to six points going into the game's final quarter.  The final quarter was all Cleary, as the Cougars, led by Taedom Stein's 11 fourth quarter points, stormed out of the gate to give Cleary an eight point lead with just over four minutes to go.  UNOH went back to the pressure, and got into a rhythm shooting from behind the arc, but Cleary was able to hold on, break the pressure, and go on to win the game by a 69-65 margin.

 Amelia Storm scored 10 of her team high 14 points in the first half to lead the Cleary attack on 6/7 shooting.  She also grabbed 7 rebounds.  Taedom Stein was clutch down the stretch, scoring 11 of her 13 points in the fourth quarter, to go with 6 assists and 5 rebounds.  Amy Jackson had 12 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists before she left the game with an injury, and Caitlyn Rayle added 12 points and 3 rebounds off the bench.  Rylee Thomas and Mileisha Rodriguez each had 9 points.  Thomas made 3 threes, including two very clutch threes late in the game, while Rodriguez grabbed a game high 15 rebounds.

The victory was the first in the program's history, the first WHAC victory, and the first for head coach Kevin Mondro at the helm of the Cougars.

Cleary improves to 1-8 overall, 1-4 in the WHAC.  The Cougars will look to make it two in a row on Monday, December 11, when they travel to Mishawaka, Indiana to take on the Bethel Pilots in a non-conference matchup.  The game is set to begin at 6:00 PM.

*Picture courtesty of Joe McKinney*