Women’s Basketball Edges Mount Union in UAA/OAC Challenge

Nov. 17 – (PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – The Carnegie Mellon University women’s basketball team capped off an undefeated weekend by beating Mount Union College 51-48 on the second day of the UAA/OAC Challenge hosted by Carnegie Mellon in Skibo Gymnasium. The win improves Carnegie Mellon to 2-0 on the season, while Mount Union falls to 1-1. Fellow UAA school Case Western Reserve defeated Otterbein College 69-57 in earlier action.

Junior guard Stacie Aleski (Pittsburgh, Pa./Chartiers Valley) and junior forward Jeanette Schilling (Houston, Texas/Cypress Creek) provided the scoring for the Tartans against the Purple Raiders, with Aleski finishing with 17 points and Schilling with 13. The Tartans benefited from hitting seven three-pointers on the day, including two treys to start the game. Red-shirt sophomore forward Rachelle Roll (Ostrander, Ohio/Buckeye Valley) opened the game with a three and junior guard Corey Innes (Commerce, Mich./Lakeland) hit another to put the Tartans up 6-4 early.

Carnegie Mellon went on a 10-0 run with Aleski and Schilling combining for seven of those points to put the Tartans up 25-16 with 4:50 to go in the first half. Later, junior Ashley Rothwell (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Alvernia) fed the ball to Schilling, who made a lay-up to cap off the first half scoring and send Carnegie Mellon into halftime with the 29-24 advantage.

Aleski hit back-to-back three pointers and Schilling added a jumper to give the Tartans their biggest lead of the game at 37-26 six minutes into the second half. Mount Union hung tough and a lay-up from forward Alicia Williams narrowed the Tartan lead to 46-44 with 2:04 left. Aleski hit her fourth three-pointer of the half to increase their lead to five with 1:33 remaining. Roll then came up with a huge offensive rebound with less than a minute to go as Carnegie Mellon was up by three, which forced Mount Union to foul. Schilling hit a pair of free throws, Mount Union hit a jumper, and then Aleski was fouled with 13 seconds remaining. She missed the front end of the one-and-one, giving the Purple Raiders one last chance. Senior guard Dana Gerenyi’s game-tying three point attempt was short and the Tartans prevailed 51-48.

Aleski was awarded the Most Valuable Player of the UAA/OAC Challenge, averaging 16.0 points over the two games. Rothwell pulled down 13 rebounds to go with three steals and junior Meghan Macguire (Grand Island, N.Y.) led the team with five assists. Schilling ended the game with 13 points, while averaging 12.0 points over two games. With her great play she was named to the All-Tournament team.

Guard Haley Drayer led Mount Union with eight points as the Purple Raiders shot 33.3% from the floor and Carnegie Mellon cooled off from yesterday to shoot 29%.

The Tartan women’s team will be in action again on Tuesday, November 20 when they travel to play Grove City with game time scheduled for 6:00 p.m.