Women's Basketball Battles To The End But Comes Up Short To Warriors

(Fort Wayne, IN)-- The Cleary Cougar women's basketball team showed plenty of heart on the road Tuesday evening, but were unable to head into the Thanksgiving break with a victory, as they fell to the Indiana Tech Warriors 67-59.

Cleary was slow out of the gate, as Indiana Tech would build a 17-4 lead through the first six minutes of game action.  Melanin Holman would make a back to back layups to answer, and the deficit would be cut to 20-9.  Izzy Dugal would make one of two free throws in the final minute, and Melanin Holman hit both free throws with one second left on the clock to make it a ten point game after ten minutes of action, with the score 22-12.

After Indiana Tech started the second quarter with a basket, Melanin Holman connected from three point range to get the deficit back to single digits.  Later in the quarter, after Indiana Tech once again expanded their lead to eleven points, Karissa Cochran made a three to make it a 28-20 game with just under six minutes to go.  One possession later, Izzy Dugal would hit from three point range to continue the Cougar run.  Jess Andrew and Izzy Dugal would keep the run going with back to back layups to make it a 32-27 game with 3:35 to play.  Jess Andrew would score another layup to get the deficit to three points, and the two teams would duke it out for the rest of the half with that margin, and the score 36-33 in favor of the Warriors.

Indiana Tech once again started the second half on fire, and quickly built a double-digit lead.  Melanin Holman would lead the Cougars offense in the third quarter, as she helped to keep Cleary within striking distance, scoring six points in the quarter.  A Jess Andrew layup with 3:07 in the quarter would get the deficit to eight points, but that would be as close as Cleary would get before the quarter ended, and the score heading into the fourth would be 55-47.

Cleary's efforts in the final ten minutes were answered each time by Indiana Tech, and the Cougars remained just out of reach of the Warrior lead for most of the quarter.  Samantha Hoelscher would convert a layup and an and-one to cut the lead to eight points, and a Melanin Holman jumper with 0:30 to play made it a 65-59 game.  Cleary would be forced to foul, and the Warriors made the resulting free throws to hand the Cougars the 67-59 defeat.

Melanin Holman had a game high 23 points to go with 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals.  Samantha Hoelscher would add 13 points and 6 rebounds, while Izzy Dugal had 12 points and 9 rebounds.

The loss drops Cleary's record to 2-5 overall, 1-2 in the WHAC.  The Cougars will return to action next Wednesday, December 3, when they travel to UM-Dearborn to play the Warriors in a WHAC matchup.  The game is scheduled to begin at 5:30 PM.