Women's Basketball Hangs On to Top UM-Dearborn

(Dearborn, MI)-- The Cleary Cougar women's basketball team built an early lead, saw it disappear, but made the plays down the stretch to pick up a WHAC victory on the road Wednesday evening against the UM-Dearborn Wolverines.

Riley Merryfield got things going with the game's first basket, and the Cougars went on to build a 12-3 lead halfway through the opening quarter.  The Wolverines would respond, and narrowed the gap for the final four minutes of opening action, as Cleary led 15-7 through ten minutes.  The second quarter was all UM-D, as the Wolverines would outscore Cleary 18-12, while Cleary would hold onto a narrow lead of just two points going into the halftime break.

The third quarter picked up right where UM-Dearborn left off the first half, and they built a three point lead going into the game's final ten minutes of play, thanks in part to the Wolverines holding a 12-4 advantage on the glass and shooting 8-16 from the floor in the quarter.  Cleary would come alive in the final ten minutes, as Taedom Stein and Mileisha Rodriguez would hit 11 of their combined 14 free throws, and a pair of clutch plays by Amy Jackson and Caitlyn Rayl would give the Cougars the lead for good, as the Cougars won by a final score of 69-64.

Taedom Stein had a game high 22 points, while adding 14 rebounds, 7 assists, and 5 steals while shooting 7-14 from the floor, and making 8-11 free throws.  Mileisha Rodriguez tallied her sixth double-double of the season, with 10 points and 10 rebounds.  Amy Jackson would hit four threes to post 14 points, while Riley Merryfield would add 10 points herself.  Caitlyn Rayl and Amelia Storm each had 5 points, and Hannah Covert posted 3 points.

Cleary has now won two of their last three to improve to 3-14 overall, 3-8 in the WHAC.  The Cougars will return to Gannon Gymnasium on Saturday, January 20, when they host the Lawrence Tech Blue Devils at 7:30 PM.