Women’s Basketball Takes #20 Chicago to the Wire

Jan. 27 - (Chicago, Ill.) – The Carnegie Mellon women’s basketball team traveled to the University of Chicago Friday, January 27 and gave the 20th ranked Maroons a run before falling 65-61 in University Athletic Association (UAA) play. Chicago moves to 14-3 overall and 3-3 in the UAA. The Tartans lose their third straight to drop to 5-12 overall and 0-6 in the UAA.

Carnegie Mellon took a 35-32 lead into the locker room after shooting 52% from the field in the first half. Chicago jumped out to an early lead to start the game, but not before Carnegie Mellon’s freshman forward Rachelle Roll’s (Ostrander, Ohio/Buckeye Valley) started a 13-4 run for the Tartans. The run gave the Tartans an eight point lead (26-18) with 7:34 left in the half. During the run, freshman forward Jeanette Schilling (Houston, Texas/Cypress Creek) rattled off six straight points and finished the half perfect from the field, shooting 4-of-4.

Chicago came out in the second half scoring nine straight points to take a six point lead (41-35). The Tartans would not go away, as they went on a 10-3 run to regain the lead 45-44 with 12:52 to play in regulation off a lay-up by freshman Colleen Light (Colts Neck, N.J./Saint John Vianney). Over the next 4:23 there would be six lead changes before the Tartans built a 59-52 lead, on an 8-0 run, with 6:52 left on the clock off a banked trey by sophomore guard Leah Feola (Pittsburgh, Pa./Canevin Catholic).

Over the next 5:04 the Maroons went on an 11-0 run to take the lead 63-59 with 1:48 to play. The Tartans would pull within two with 37 ticks remaining on a lay-up by senior Ashley Mazziotti’s (New Tripoli, Pa./Northwestern Lehigh), but the Maroons would hold on to the lead, as senior Jennifer Kaiser hit two free throws with three second left to secure the victory for Chicago, 65-61.

Freshman Gemma Easterling (Upper Marlboro, Md./Charles H. Flowers) and Schilling led the way for the Tartans as each matched their career highs scoring 15 and 13 points, respectively.

The Maroons were led by senior Susie Gutowski with 18 points followed by sophomore Nofi Mojidi with 17. Chicago converted 24 turnovers to the Tartans 19, but the Maroons had the edge in field goal percentage shooting 49% to the Tartans 48.2.

The Carnegie Mellon women’s basketball team will travel to Washington University in St. Louis Sunday, January 29 for a 2:00 p.m. Central Standard Time tip.