Gaels improve national ranking with 93-63 win over Waterloo

Marianne Alarie leads with 17 points on Get REAL Day

Emily Hazlett (left) and Marianne Alarie (10) celebrate against Laurier on Friday. Alarie scored 39 points over the weekend in the Gaels' two wins.
Image by: Amanda Norris
Emily Hazlett (left) and Marianne Alarie (10) celebrate against Laurier on Friday. Alarie scored 39 points over the weekend in the Gaels' two wins.

In front of a pink-clad crowd, the women’s basketball team continued their win streak last weekend with their fourth consecutive victory since opening their regular season. The 93-63 win for Queen’s comes as the first defeat for Waterloo this season, and saw Queen’s national rank jump a spot to number six in Canada.

Adding to the excitement of Saturday’s win, the Varsity Leadership Council teamed up with Get REAL to host the Gaels game of the week. Get REAL is a student group devoted to eliminating LGBTQ+ discrimination and raising awareness of the impact of homophobic and transphobic language on campus. 

Courtside, the contest featured a Get REAL information booth, trivia and pink Get REAL merchandise for fans. 

With the Queen’s community coming together to support both Get REAL and the Gaels, Queen’s brought their strongest performance of the young season.

Against Waterloo, a stacked Gaels offence wasted no time in the first frame of play. Fifth-year guard Emily Hazlett boosted the intensity early on in the quarter, with a steal that saw her relentlessly driving down the court for a basket.

Queen’s continued to look strong offensively, posting a 43-22 scoreline by the end of the half with an impressive 50 per cent field goal success lead by Marianne Alarie who scored 12 of her game-high 17 points.

Beginning the third quarter, Waterloo tested the Gaels with a few baskets in the opening minutes of play.

“Our biggest struggle today was a few missteps on defence,” said fifth-year player Robyn Pearson. “I think we could have communicated better, but it’s still very early and I think that we took the right steps towards during the game to improve that.”

Contributions from all over the court saw the Gaels regroup and continue to push their lead into the fourth quarter. Queen’s was able to force 17 turnovers as a team, accumulating 23 points off turnovers and 14 assists.

“We worked really well as a team today,” said Hazlett. “Everyone was able to contribute and get on the board which is something that we look for with all of our players. We had really great composure and played well as a whole unit.”

Queen’s came into the last quarter up 70-40, and retained the 30-point gap for the last 10 minutes of the play, winning 93-63. A team filled with depth, all 12 players on the Gaels roster made an appearance on the court in the final quarter. Of their 93 points, 44 came from the bench.

“I think that today against Waterloo we played really well as a unit,” said Pearson. “We are so deep in that we can play all 12 of our players, and that really showed as everyone scored and rebounded today.”

Finishing just shy of a double-double, second-year post Veronika Lavergne accompanied her nine points with nine rebounds. Double-digit point contributors for the Gaels included Alarie with 17, Hazlett with 11, and Andrea Priamo and Bridget Mulholland rounding up the scoring with 10 apiece. 

Next on the agenda, the Gaels will make the trek to Thunder Bay to take on the Lakehead Thunderwolves this Friday.

Quietly confident, seasoned veteran Robyn Pearson is not taking the matchup lightly by any means. 

“Next weekend is a tough matchup against Lakehead in Thunder Bay, and we will definitely have to execute on all cylinders,” said Pearson. “Decreasing our turnovers will be key to winning that one.”

Tags

Get REAL, Marianne Alarie, women's basketball

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