Women’s basketball shone through with an impressive victory under the bright lights of an OUA Showcase event at the NBA All-Star Weekend in Toronto.
The Gaels came out with a 61-40 win over the five-time defending national champion Windsor Lancers at Toronto’s Enercare Centre during the NBA Centre Court fan festival.
Andrea Priamo earned player of the game honours for Queen’s with 12 points and 10 rebounds while Jenny Wright led the Gaels in scoring with 14 points.
Queen’s hasn’t defeated the Lancers once in regular season play during Windsor’s national championship dynasty over the past five years.
“Winning those games improves our place in the standings,” Gaels head coach Dave Wilson said. “Now we’ve just got to continue getting better each day.”
The Gaels record sits at 13-3 on the season, pushing the team to second in the OUA. Windsor, who came into the game ranked 10th in the country, fell to 12-5. Queen’s came into the weekend unranked but sat just outside the top 10 with an honourable mention.
Queen’s got off to a rough start. The team fell behind 10-3 midway through the first quarter after making just one of their first 17 shots from the field.“Coming to a venue like this, you know you’re going to be tight off the start,” Wilson said.
“Coming to a venue like this, you know you’re going to be tight off the start,” Wilson said.
Jenny Wright’s trio of three-pointers tied the game at 12 early in the second quarter.
“We had nothing going offensively,” Wilson said. “Jenny hitting those threes kept us alive for a period of time before we could find our legs back under us.”
The Gaels took the lead at 18-17 midway through the second quarter on a basket by Priamo.
“We knew it was going to be really high energy, and we play well in those environments,” she said.
Queen’s controlled the pace of the final three quarters, dominating offensively and defensively. Abby Dixon led the Gaels with four steals while the team picked up 12 overall. Windsor turned the ball over 20 times over the game’s 40 minutes, often due to pressure from the Gaels’ strong defensive structure.
“Once we get our energy high, there’s not much the other team can do,” Priamo said.
The win came a night after a 69-64 victory over Western at home in Kingston.
Queen’s has three games left this season, starting with a road trip to Algoma before closing out at home against Ryerson and Toronto.
“We’re looking to just go hard on all three of those,” Priamo said.
Tags
Andrea Primo, Dave Wilson, NBA All-Star, OUA, women's basketball
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