Women's Basketball begins 2025-26 season with WHAC win against Michigan-Dearborn

(Dearborn, Michigan) - The Rochester Christian women's basketball team opened its Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) season on Wednesday evening against the Wolverines from Michigan-Dearborn. The Warriors used a 24-point second quarter to pull away from UMD as they picked up their first conference win of the season.

RCU wins its first game of the season, starting 1-0, both in conference and overall, while UMD falls to 1-2 overall and 0-1 in WHAC play. 

FIRST QUARTER

After an opening three-point basket by the Wolverines, Jacey Somers scored the first RCU basket following a Mylah Aalse steal. Following a couple of missed possessions, Aalse would even the game up at 5-5, with a 3-point bucket. Neither team could get a strong hold of the game, with both teams having a couple of two-minute scoring droughts. Emily Lockey broke the drought with her own 3-pointer, and Tambre Williams made a layup to make it a 12-11 game. UMD made a layup with 12 seconds left to take a 14-11 lead after the first 10 minutes.

SECOND QUARTER

Jacey Somers opened the quarter scoring RCU's first five points, followed by a Samone Andrews layup. Ashley Loon continued the Warriors' nine-point run, forcing a UMD timeout. UMD grabbed its first basket at the 5:18 mark, and Shahd Bakkar responded right away with a layup. Andrews, Somers, Bakkar, and Jordan Peterson all added points to round out the half, with RCU up 14 points.

THIRD QUARTER

The third quarter saw the two teams trade points back and forth. The Warriors would go on a 12-3 run in the quarter, which saw them take a 21-point lead, their largest of the game. The Wolverines would start to mount a comeback as they would go on an 18-10 run to end the quarter. 

FOURTH QUARTER

The Wolverines scored the first four points of the final 10 minutes before Jordan Peterson ended the run. Jacey Somers, Shahd Bakkar, and Mylah Aalse had layups on three straight possessions to extend the lead back out to 11 points. Over the next four minutes, RCU's defense would clamp down, only allowing three points to the UMD offense, of which two of those came in the final 24 seconds as RCU was able to start the conference season with a win. 

TOP PERFORMERS

Jacey Somers led all scorers on the evening with 19 points, while Mylah Aalse and Samone Andrews added 15 and 10 points, respectively. Karmyn Lowry and Shahd Bakkar led the passing, recording five and four assists, respectively. 

The Warriors as a team created 12 steals, led by Samone Andrews with three, while Karmyn Lowry, Shahd Bakkar, and Tambre Williams each had two. Andrews and Jacey Somers each led the team with six rebounds. 

UP NEXT

The Warriors will next be in action on Saturday, November 8, when they host #RV Huntington at Garth Pleasant Arena beginning at 5 PM.