Tartans Unable to Overcome #24 Chicago's Strong First Half, Fall 73-56 in Windy City

(CHICAGO, Ill.) - The Carnegie Mellon University women's basketball team continued University Athletic Association (UAA) play on Friday night with a 73-56 setback at 24th-ranked University of Chicago. Carnegie Mellon is now 10-11 overall and 3-7 in the UAA. Chicago moves to 16-5, 7-3.

Carnegie Mellon shot 51.7% from the floor for the game while Chicago shot 33.9%. The Tartans were led by senior Laurel Pereira (Naperville, Ill./Naperville North) with 11 points. Sophomore Caitlyn Clendenin (Bethesda, Md./Bethesda Chevy Chase) tied a career-high with five steals, as she also score seven points.

Taylor Lake led the Maroons with 14 points. Grace Hynes finished with 13 points and Miranda Burt scored 12 in the win for Chicago.

Chicago opened with a 13-2 run over the first four minutes of play. The Maroon converted 5-of-7 from the floor, including 3-of-4 from behind the arc while holding the Tartans to 1-of-6 from the field. Pereira scored two straight buckets for the Tartans to cut the deficit to 13-6, but Chicago then score eight of the last 13 points of the quarter and led 21-11 at the close.

A jumper by senior Makayla Filiere (Chandler, Ariz./Hamilton) with 6:32 to play in the second quarter made the score 27-17. The Maroons then went on a 19-5 run to end the half and took a 46-22 lead into the locker room. The home team shot 66.7% (10-15) from the floor over the second 10 minutes of play while the Tartans shot 33.3% (4-12).

The third quarter saw the Tartans outscore the Maroons 13-11 with senior Megan Jaeb (San Jose, Calif./Presentation) scoring six of her seven points. Chicago held its double figure lead the entire fourth quarter and went on for the 73-56 victory.

The Tartans will be back on the court on Sunday, February 16 with a 2:00 pm CT tip at Washington University in St. Louis.