Another successful weekend for Gaels basketball has passed, even with a scheduling blunder.
The OUA schedule’s a daunting one, especially when a the back-to-back is a four-hour drive coming off a home game. That’s exactly what both Varsity basketball teams had to face over the weekend. On Jan. 23, the Gaels played host to the Algoma Thunderbirds beginning with the still undefeated Women’s team at 2 p.m., followed by the Men’s team at 4 p.m. After the Friday home games, the Gaels had to travel to Brock University in St. Catherines to play an evening showdown against the Badgers.
For those unfamiliar, the OUA schedule’s created at the beginning of the season and because of the OUA’s unique geographic challenges, it’s developed to favour these issues. An example of this would be a team travelling to Ottawa to play Carleton or uOttawa. Instead in this unique circumstance, the OUA decided to put this scheduling cork into reality.
On the women’s side, a complete domination for the Thunderbirds from start to finish, with a 106-34 victory and allowing eleven different players to man the court. The second game, a much different story with a more than worthy opponent in the Badgers who are 10-6 and sit second in the OUA central division.
The Gaels got off to a quick start, leading by as much as 15 points in the first quarter and taking a commanding 25-12 lead. It was a tale of two quarters unfortunately, with the Gaels struggling to score in the second, with only a 23 per cent success rate from field goal, the Badger were able narrow the gap and even take the lead at one point during the half.
Despite the better numbers from the field in the second half, it turned into a tight game that relied on tough defense and big-time scores. Luckily for the Gaels, they’ve the personnel who thrive under the pressure and narrowly edged the Badgers 66-64.
Players to highlight include Kiyara Letlow, MSc ’26, who now has a double-double in her sixth straight game, while Katrina Rennon, ArtSci ’27, contributed a huge three pointer in the fourth-quarter which added to her team high seventeen points in the game.
With the win, the Gaels climb another stop in the USports rankings, comfortably seeded in the second spot as they continue their historic undefeated season.
On the Men’s side, they two handled the Thunderbirds with a 91-44 win that saw their whole playing roster see double digit minutes at home. Then came the long trek for an 8 p.m. matchup with the number one team in the OUA Central the Brock Badgers.
Like the woman’s game, Queens came out hot taking a quick lead and building it too as much as nine points. Until the dread second quarter came, when the Gaels offenese went dry, narrowing the gap to just one point going into the second half. However, Queens came out in the third quarter and took control of the game creating a double-digit cushion and handily took care of business by a score of 100-82.
Ollie Engren and Lucas Ponting both had a team high 19 points in the victory. Ponting in particular with an impressive stat of five of six from the three. With the win the Gaels are in a tie for second in the OUA east with the Ottawa Gee-Gees.
Their next opponents are Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and University of Toronto (U of T) on a normal road trip on Jan. 30 and 31.
Tags
Algoma, Basketball, Brock, OUA
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 eic@queensjournal.ca.