Oakland Pulls Away From Women's Basketball

(Rochester, MI)-- For the second consecutive season, the Cleary Cougar women's basketball team made the short drive to Oakland County to take on the NCAA D1 Oakland University Golden Grizzlies.

Amy Jackson would get the Cougars on the board with a pair of made free throws.  After OU tied the game, Mileisha Rodriguez would score to give the Cougars back the lead.  A Golden Grizzlie free throw made it 4-3, but Samantha Hoelscher hit a jumper to exten the Cleary lead to 6-3. A pair of Taedom Stein made free throws and a Stein layup would give Cleary a 10-6 lead early in the contest.  OU would make a jumper and Cleary would force a turnover to hold a 10-8 lead going into the first media timeout.  After the Media timeout, Oakland would force the Cougars into some turnovers and capitalized to take the lead, going on a run to finish the quarter leading 25-12.

In the second quarter, Amy Jackson hit a three, followed by a Rylee Thomas layup, and a Taedom Stein layup to cut the lead back to single digits, forcing the Golden Grizzlies to use a timeout.  After rebuilding the double-digit lead, Amy Jackson hit a three, then stole the ball and converted the resulting layup to make the score 36-24 with 4:45 left in the first half.  The teams would trade baskets, with Caitlyn Rayl knocking down a layup, but the Golden Grizzlies would finish the half on a 14-6 run to lead 53-32 at the break.

The second half was a tough one for the Cougars, as the Golden Grizzlies turned up the defensive pressure, and limited the Cougars to a pair of Rylee Thomas made three pointers the duration of the third ten minutes.  Cleary would get a spark in the fourth quarter, when Katie Martus knocked down a pair of threes, but the deficit was too much to overcome for the Cougars.

Amy Jackson led the Cougars with 11 points, while Rylee Thomas had 8 points and 3 steals.  Samantha Hoelscher would add 7 points and 5 rebounds.  Taedom Stein chipped in 6 points and 5 rebounds, while Mileisha Rodriguez added 4 points and a team high 7 rebounds.  Katie Martus led the Cougar bench with 6 pointsin the game.  

The two teams combined for 18 made three pointers in the game, with Oakland hitting 11 to Cleary's 7.  OU held the statistical advantage in assists, rebounds, points in the paint, and points off turnovers.  Each team had 15 second chance points.

Cleary is 0-4 on the season, and will return home to Gannon Gymnasium on Saturday, November 9, when they take on the IU-Kokomo Cougars in a non-conference matchup.  The game is set to begin at 1:00 PM ET.