Women's Basketball Upended by Gray Wolves in WHAC Action

(Lansing, MI)-- The Cleary Cougar women's basketball team returned home Wednesday evening to take on the Lourdes University Gray Wolves in a WHAC battle of two teams trying to crack the top half of the conference standings.

Lourdes would start the game on a 9-0 run before the Cougars settled in and grew into the game.  Samantha Hoelscher had a second chance layup to get Cleary on the board, and Caitlyn Rayl scored four consecutive points to cut the Gray Wolf lead in half.  After Taedom Stein knocked down a three, the deficit was three points, and the deficit would shrink to one point on the next possession after Izzy Dugal scored a layup.  After Samantha Hoelscher tied the game at 13-13 late in the quarter, Lourdes would re-take the lead late, and held a 15-13 lead through ten minutes.  

Trailing by one in the second quarter, Izzy Dugal hit a three to give the Cougars their first lead, and a Caitlyn Rayl layup would extend the lead to four points for Cleary.  The two teams traded baskets for a few possessions, but the Gray Wolves would finish the half strong, and took a seven point lead into the half, with the score being 34-27.

Cleary would cut the lead to four points after an Amy Jackson jumper in the third quarter, but Lourdes would answer with a run to build a double-digit lead by the halfway mark of the quarter.  Lourdes would extend the lead to fourteen points by the end of the quarter, and built a twenty point lead with just over seven minutes to play in the game.  Cleary would claw back, but the deficit would be too much to overcome, and the Cougars fell by a 76-62 score.

Izzy Dugal and Taedom Stein each had 15 points to lead the Cougar offense.  Dugal would also have 9 rebounds and 3 steals, while Stein had 3 rebounds and two assists.  Caitlyn Rayl would score a career high 14 points on 5/7 shooting to round out the double-digit scorers.

Cleary drops to 5-10 overall, 4-4 in the WHAC.  The Cougars will look to bounce back on Saturday, January 10, when they host the Defiance College Yellow Jackets for the first time.  The game is set to begin at 1:00 PM.