Warriors Pull Away from Women's Basketball in Second Half

(Fort Wayne, IN)-- The Cleary Cougar women's basketball team battled, but the current first place team in the WHAC, Indiana Tech, pulled away in the second half, handing Cleary a 70-42 defeat Saturday afternoon in Ft. Wayne.

Indiana Tech scored the game's first five points before Taedom Stein got Cleary on the board with a layup.  After a defensive stop, Amy Jackson tied the game at 5-5 with a three.  Jackson would give Cleary their first lead of the game a few possessions later, when she scored a layup.  The Warriors would tie the game, but Riley Merryfield answered with a made three of her own, giving Cleary a 10-7 advantage.  The lead grew to five points with just over two minutes to play in the quarter, when Izzy Dugal scored a layup.  Dugal would get fouled and converted both free throws to make it a 14-7 game, in favor of the Cougars.  Indiana Tech would end the Cougar run, but Taedom Stein answered with a layup before the quarter, and Cleary led 16-9 after ten minutes of play.

Indiana Tech would make one free throw to start the second quarter, and Amy Jackson scored a layup, making the score 18-10, the largest lead for the Cougars in the game.  The Warriors then hit back to back threes, followed by a layup to tie the game, before taking the lead before the media timeout of the quarter.  Trailing by four with just over two minutes remaining in the half, Samantha Hoelscher knocked down a three.  Indiana Tech added a basket on the other end, and that would end the scoring for the half, with Indiana Tech leading 28-25 at the break.

The Warriors started the third quarter on fire, outscoring the Cougars 12-3 in the first five minutes of second half action to build a double-digit lead.  An Izzy Dugal layup would cut the deficit to ten points before Indiana Tech went on another run, this time outscoring 10-2 to finish the third quarter, and holding a 50-32 lead with ten minutes to play.  Cleary would get points from the free throw line from Amy Jackson and Taedom Stein to start the fourth, but could not muster a rally of their own, while the Warriors extended their lead, and handed the Cougars their fourth consecutive defeat.

Amy Jackson led the Cougars with 9 points and 4 rebounds.  Samantha Hoelscher added 8 points and 4 rebounds, while Taedom Stein also had 8 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists.  Izzy Dugal chipped in 7 points and 5 rebounds off the bench.

Cleary falls to 7-14 overall, 6-8 in the WHAC.  The Cougars will next be in action on Wednesday, February 5, when they travel to Southfield to take on the Lawrence Tech Blue Devils.  The game is slated to begin at 5:30 PM.