Women's Basketball Falls in WHAC Opener to Aquinas

(Lansing, MI)-- After the highest scoring game in Cleary women's basketball history last Saturday, the Cleary Cougar women's basketball team found themselves in a dogfight Wednesday, as they took on the Aquinas College Saints at Gannon Gymnasium.

Cleary started off strong, with Izzy Dugal, Samantha Hoelscher, and Jess Andrew all scoring to give the Cougars a 6-0 lead.  The Saints would fight back, and took the lead with 1:46 to play in the opening quarter.  A Melanin Holman layup would give the Cougars a 14-13 lead, and that would be the score after ten minutes of action.

After trading points to start the second quarter, Karissa Cochran would connect from behind the arc to give Cleary a 23-22 lead with just under 5:00 minutes to play.  Aquinas would go on a quick 5-0 run to build a four point advantage.  The Saints would extend that lead to five points, but Samantha Hoelscher would narrow the gap with one second left in the half, after she was fouled and made both of the resulting free throws.  Cleary would trail 30-27 at the break.

The Cougars would start the third quarter strong, with a 6-2 run to take the lead at 33-32.  The Saints would answer with the game's biggest run over the course of four minutes, and the visitors would hold a 42-33 lead with 3:06 left in the quarter.  Jess Andrew would score a basket, followed by a Samantha Hoelscher free throw to cut the deficit back to six points.  A Saints three pointer with 0:09 left in the quarter would extend the Aquinas lead back to nine points, and Cleary trailed 47-38 with ten minutes left in the game.

The Cougars would show fight in the fourth, and their run started with a Jess Andrew field goal, followed by a Samantha Hoelscher free throw, and a Melanin Holman layup, making the score 47-43.  Izzy Dugal would score from near the basket to make it a two point game with 7:42 to go.  Still fighting to get back into the game, Melanin Holman would get fouled with 3:35 left in the game, but was only able to make one of her two free throw attempts, and the score would be 51-50.  Aquinas would finish the game strong, and scored five unanswered points with 1:29 to play to extend their lead to 60-54.  A Samantha Hoelscher pair of free throws would make it a four point game once again, with the score 62-58.  Cleary would be forced to foul to try to extend the game and save their clock, the Saints would make their free throws, and held the Cougars scoreless in the final minute, handing Cleary a 67-58 WHAC-opening defeat.

Cleray had three players reach double-digits to lead the attack.  Izzy Dugal had 16 points and 4 rebounds, while Melanin Holman also had 16 points, 8 assists, and 5 steals.  Samantha Hoelscher would have 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals.

Cleary drops to 1-4 overall, 0-1 in the WHAC.  The Cougars will return to action on Saturday, November 22, when they host the Madonna University Crusaders.  The game is set to begin at 1:00 PM.