When all was said and done, it was guard Dorcas Buisa’s program-record 38 points that lifted the Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team over the Guelph Gryphons for a 74-69 victory on Nov. 22.
Buisa’s total surpassed former Raven Heather Lindsay’s 34 points on Jan. 6, 2017 against the Laurier Golden Hawks.
“I was really in the present and just played hard for my team,” Buisa said. “Didn’t think much and we just executed and were confident in ourselves, and that’s really what matters.”
However, coming into the half, the now 8-0 Ravens were at risk of conceding their first loss of the season, trailing 38-29.
Carleton was playing without veterans Jacqueline Urban, Kyana-Jade Poulin and Teresa Donato, who are representing Canada in Xiamen, China for the 2024 FISU 3×3 University Basketball World Cup this weekend. The pressure to perform without their top players was overwhelming at the start of the game.
“There’s a lot of pride with everybody on this team and wanting to still perform without three of our top players was maybe a little bit heavy,” said head coach Dani Sinclair. “We were making the game bigger than it was.”
In the first half, Carleton shot at an abysmal 21.1 per cent rate and struggled to build an offensive rhythm even into the third quarter. Broken plays and shot clock violations plagued the Ravens’ play, and the team needed a veteran spark.
Enter Buisa. The fifth-year guard was forced to sit out the first half after fouling out but returned with a chip on her shoulder in the second. She picked up a steady six points in each of the game’s first three quarters, but with her team down 51-47 entering the final quarter, she exploded for 20 points.
“To play as hard as she did in the second half and stay out of foul trouble and just kind of put the team on her back a little bit at times on offence, I think just shows how much she’s been through over five years and a few months here.”
In the final minute of the contest, Buisa sunk two critical free throws to knot the game at 69-69. A key defensive stop on the other end sent Buisa and the Ravens back down the court for a chance to take the lead. Buisa ran the clock out before working her way toward the paint and spotting Zerina Duvnjak at the arc. Duvnjak sunk the three, as the crowd erupted within the Ravens’ Nest.
“I’m happy she took that shot,” said Ravens guard Tatyanna Burke. “Even if she had missed, she probably would have taken it again and made it.”
Just as critical was the defensive stop by Noelle Kilbreath in the dying seconds. She intercepted a cross-court pass and buried the fast-break layup to seal the game. A fifth-year transfer from MacEwan University, Kilbreath has fit in seamlessly through eight games this season.
Heading into another tough matchup the next day against the 7-2 McMaster Marauders on Nov. 23, Buisa said nothing changes, even without their top three players in the lineup.
“It’s only difficult mentally,” she said. “Physically, we have the exact same team. Everybody on our floor can do the same things as the three people missing. It’s just mentally feeling the confidence to execute it, and we proved that today.”
The Ravens won their ninth straight game 81-70 against the Marauders. Buisa dominated again, scoring 31 points to lead the Ravens for a second game in a row.
Sinclair reiterated the strength of the culture that the basketball program has built over the years.
“We graduated Kali [Pocrnic] last year and the message was we shouldn’t miss a beat. We should be able to just learn as we go. We still have a lot of veteran players in the room and girls who bust their ass every day. We’re just excited about the opportunity, so we’re just coaching the same way we do every game.”
Featured photo by Marc Lafleur/Carleton Ravens
