Women's Basketball Falls Just Short in WHAC Quarterfinals

(Fort Wayne, IN)-- After a historic first playoff win in program history on Monday, the 8-seed Cleary Cougar women's basketball team had to travel to Ft. Wayne to take on the 1-seed Indiana Tech Warriors in the WHAC Tournament Quarterfinals Wednesday evening.

Mileisha Rodriguez scored the game's first points, and Samantha Hoelscher scored one possession later to give the Cougars an early 4-0 lead.  After Indiana Tech scored, Mileisha Rodriguez scored another basket to extend Cleary's lead back to four points.  The remaining eight minutes of the quarter were back and forth, and after the Warriors tied the game at 9-9, and again at 11-11, the two teams would struggle to score over the next four minutes to end the quarter.  Samantha Hoelscher would give the Cougars a 13-11 lead with 1:12 to play in the opening quarter, and that would be the score after the horn sounded to end the action.

The second quarter was all Indiana Tech, with the Warriors going on a 21-2 run before a Caitlyn Rayl layup stopped the bleeding with 2:31 to play in the half.  Samantha Hoelscher would hit a three pointer, and the Cougars would trail at the half 32-20.

The game resumed its back and forth action, but an Amy Jackson three pointer cut the deficit back to ten points.  On the Warriors' next possession, they missed their shot, and Amy Jackson got the rebound, and went coast to coast to score a layup, and got the Cougars within eight points.  That deficit would hold to end the quarter, with Indiana Tech leading 47-39.

After two minutes with neither team scoring a basket, Samantha Hoelscher ended the drought with a steal and an and-one layup.  She would convert the free throw to get the Cougars to within five points.  Another defensive stop led to a Mileisha Rodriguez layup, and another defensive stop led to a Samantha Hoelscher layup, now making the score 46-47.  After Indiana Tech scored, Rylee Thomas hit a three to tie the game at 49-49.  Mileisha Rodriguez would give the Cougars the lead on their next opportunity with 5:16 to play.  The Warriors then scored seven straight points to take a 56-51 lead.  An Amy Jackson layup with 2:48 cut the Warrior lead to three points.  Still trailing by three, Izzy Dugal drew a foul, and hit one of her two free throws, to make the score 56-58.  Trailing by two points with under :20 seconds to play, the Warriors would hit a contested jumper late in the shot clock to get their lead back to four points.  Taedom Stein would score a layup with :10 to play to get the deficit back to two points.  After a Cougar timeout, Cleary was unable to force the turnover, and instead had to foul.  The Warriors would connect on both free throws to make the score 60-64.  Cleary used a timeout to advance the ball, but their final shot was off the mark as time expired, and the game ended with the Warriors advancing to the WHAC Semifinals.

Mileisha Rodriguez led the Cougars with 14 points on 7/8 shooting, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks.  Amy Jackson added 13 points and 4 rebounds, while Taedom Stein had 12 points, 6 assists, and 4 rebounds.  Samantha Hoelscher also had 12 points to go with 4 steals and 3 rebounds.

Cleary ends the season with an 11-18 record.