Women's Basketball Roars to Thrilling Playoff Win Over Rochester Christian

(Lansing, MI)-- The Cleary Cougar women's basketball team made history Monday evening, as they earned the program's first ever WHAC tournament victory after defeating the visiting Rochester Christian Warriors at Gannon Gymnasium in Lansing.

The game started as a back and forth affair through the first ten minutes of game action.  Cleary built an early 6-2 lead after Samantha Hoelscher hit a pair of free throws followed by a Taedom Stein layup.  Rochester Christian would tie the game at 8-8 before Cleary went on a quick 5-0 run after Izzy Dugal made a layup, followed by a Riley Merryfield three pointer.  RCU would fight back to tie the game once again at 14-14, and again at 16-16 before the Warriors took their first lead of the game with 1:23 to play in the opening quarter, with the score being 16-18.  Taedom Stein would score a layup with twenty seconds to play in the quarter, and the two teams shared an 18-18 score heading into the second quarter.

Rochester Christian would hit a pair of free throws to break the tie in the second quarter, but a Samantha Hoelscher layup tied the game, and kickstarted a 9-0 run from the Cougars to take more control of the game.  RCU would cut the Cougar lead to one point with 4:00 to play in the half, but Sydney McCaig had something to say, and hit a three to give the Cougars a four point lead once again.  An Amy Jackson and Samantha Hoelscher pair of layups helped the lead grow to eight points, the largest for either team in the first half.  The Warriors would draw a foul with two seconds remaining, hit one of the free throws, and the teams went into the half with Cleary leading 34-27.

After RCU started the third quarter with a made three pointer, the Cougars responded with a 15-2 run to take control of the game with a seventeen point lead.  The Warriors would cut their deficit back to ten points with just over three minutes remaining in the quarter.  Samantha Hoelscher had a trio of layups to spurt a 6-0 run, and gave the Cougars back their sixteen point lead.  Rochester Christian would score a jumper late, giving Cleary a fourteen point lead with ten minutes to play.

The Warriors would not go down without a fight, and with 6:45 remaining, the Cougar lead had been cut to single digits.  An Amy Jackson layup followed by another huge Sydney McCaig three pointer helped Cleary get the much needed cushion of fourteen points with less than five minutes to go in the game.  The Warriors once again made a push with their season on the line, and with 3:40 to play, Cleary's lead was only seven points, and the score 69-62.  Cleary would hit a free throw, followed by an Amy Jackson layup to rebuild the double-digit advantage with three minutes left in the game.  After RCU hit a three to cut the Cougar lead to seven points, the Cougars got a pair layups from Mileisha Rodriguez and Samantha Hoelscher to keep the lead at ten points.  After a defensive stop, Cleary drew a foul that sent Taedom Stein to the line, where she buried both free throws.  Another and final defensive stop set up a Taedom Stein layup with 0:44 seconds remaining to seal the victory for the Cougars, as they won their first playoff game ever by a score of 80-66.

Samantha Hoelscher had a team high 22 points to go with 9 rebounds.  Taedom Stein added an efficient 16 points and 6 assists, while Mileisha Rodriguez and Amy Jackson each had 11 points.  Rodriguez would also grab her sixteenth career double-double with 15 rebounds.  Jackson had 5 rebounds and a 4 assists.

The victory gives Cleary an 11-17 record overall.  The 8-seeded Cougars will now travel to Fort Wayne on Wednesday, February 26, when they take on the WHAC's regular season champs and 1-seeded Indiana Tech Warriors.  The game is set to begin at 6:00 PM.