Last home games end on a sour note

Women’s basketball fell in both of last weekend’s games at Bartlett Gym, their last home games of the regular season

Gaels’ forward Alaina Porter tries to get by Nicki Schutz of the Varsity Blues Saturday night at Bartlett Gym.
Image by: Christine Blais
Gaels’ forward Alaina Porter tries to get by Nicki Schutz of the Varsity Blues Saturday night at Bartlett Gym.

The women’s basketball team concluded their regular-season home schedule with disappointing losses to the Ryerson Rams and the University of Toronto Varsity Blues last weekend. The Gaels lost 48-46 to the 6-10 Rams on Friday evening and fell 58-51 to the 12-5 Varsity Blues on Saturday, dropping their record to 7-11 on the season.

Head coach Dave Wilson said despite the close score against Ryerson, the Gaels didn’t play with enough emotion to pull out a victory.

“We played with no heart,” Wilson said. “We got outhustled by a team that wanted to win more than we did. We got beat to the ball and outrebounded by a smaller team. They just wanted it more.”

The Rams played a very up-tempo in-your-face style against Queen’s and the Gaels weren’t able to adapt, despite their preparations.

“I give credit to Ryerson,” Wilson said. “They’re a good, aggressive team. What concerns me is that we knew that coming in and we couldn’t keep up.”

OUA scoring leader Brittany Moore recorded a team-high 18 points for Queen’s on eight-of-19 shooting in the losing effort, slightly below her OUA-leading average of 18.56 points per game.

Moore said the Gaels’ defensive effort was the main culprit in the loss, but the offence also has work to do.

“Defensively, we played awful,” Moore said. “Offensively, we need to take care of the ball more. There were too many turnovers.”

Ryerson only shot 20 per cent from the field, but they hauled in 33 offensive rebounds and converted 19 of their 35 free-throw opportunities. The Rams outrebounded the Gaels 56 to 46 on the night, which Moore said was a big factor in the loss.

“They were given so many more opportunities,” she said. “The ball was in our end for the majority of the game.” Moore said the loss wasn’t due to a lack of physical ability, but rather a lack of focus. “It’s definitely a mental game,” she said. “We need to come out hard every game. We need to treat every team like they’re number one.” Against the OUA East-leading Varsity Blues the Gaels suffered from the same flaws. They came out of the gate slow, trailing by 10 points after the first quarter, and were outrebounded 44 to 35.

Forward Anne Murphy posted a double-double for the Tricolour with 12 points and 12 rebounds and added another four blocked shots. She said rebounding is one of the team’s chief concern at the moment.

“We struggled on the boards,” Murphy said. “That’s the biggest issue right now. Again it was a lot of second chances for them. If we can clean that up we’ll be better overall.”

Murphy said the Gaels can take some pride in their play from the second quarter onwards, though, having outscored the Varsity Blues over the remainder of the game.

“When we are going to the rim and being aggressive, we’re successful,” she said. “We need to do that all the time. We need to come out with the attitude that we are going to win.”

At the conclusion of the game, the team acknowledged the contributions of Lauren Scott, Lyndsey Gauley, Jaime Dale and Anne Murphy. All four players will be graduating after this season.

The Gaels currently sit in the sixth and final playoff spot in the OUA East and will finish the season with four road games. They’ll need at least one win to ensure a playoff spot.

Queen’s will play the Laurentian Voyageurs Friday and York Saturday.

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to content