In a heartbreaking 70-61 loss, the Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team fell short of a fourth-quarter comeback as the uOttawa Gee-Gees lifted the Critelli Cup at the Ravens’ Nest on March 8.
It was Carleton’s first loss since the preseason, having gone 22-0 through the entire 2024-25 regular season en-route to their third-straight Critelli Cup final.
Unlike Carleton’s Feb. 8 Capital Hoops Classic victory, the Ravens could not find a way to pull in front after their crosstown rivals took a large lead halfway through the first quarter.
But the Ravens were in striking distance at the half, thanks to guards Tatyanna Burke and Kyana-Jade Poulin, who scored seven points apiece in the second quarter.
The Gee-Gees had a driving force in fifth-year guard Natsuki Szczokin, the game’s MVP, who dug deep in her final OUA game to explode for 21 points in just the first half, keeping uOttawa ahead 41-37.
“Honestly, I think it was just the pressure of the game and knowing it’s my last game in Ontario,” Szczokin said. “It really meant something special to me.”
In the third quarter, the Ravens held Szczokin off the scoreboard, but they couldn’t stifle her leadership or her playmaking on the court as she continued to influence the game in uOttawa’s favour.
According to Ravens head coach Dani Sinclair, it was Szczokin’s play in the second half — where she only notched a single point — that set the Gee-Gees apart from the Ravens.
“She’d move the ball and other people started making plays because she’s a leader and a fifth-year player that understands how to do that,” Sinclair said. “We didn’t have anybody that was able to do that.”
After a disastrous third frame where Carleton was outscored 21-10, Sinclair set her team straight for the final quarter, where they put together their best basketball of the night.
By the time Sinclair called a timeout with 65 seconds left in the game, the Ravens only trailed by five points and had outscored the Gee-Gees 13-3 in the final frame up to that point.
“Carleton was making a comeback, but it was taking a long time for that comeback to come,” said uOttawa head coach Rose-Anne Joly. “I turned to my assistant coach at some point, I was like, ‘we just need to score a basket.’”
The Ravens were aggressive in the final minute, battling hard to keep possession in hopes of making another impossible comeback like they had just a month earlier. But with just 19 seconds to go, Szczokin forced a foul from Poulin.
Szczokin scored her only point of the second half and her 22nd of the game off one of her two free throws, giving Joly and the Gee-Gees the single basket they needed to put the championship out of reach for the Ravens.
For the Gee-Gees, overcoming the Ravens was the furthest thing from guaranteed, with their last victory against their rival coming on Dec. 6, 2023.
“It’s a dream,” Joly said, with her championship cap donned proudly on her head. “I was looking up at the hat earlier on, it says ‘champion’ and I’m like, ‘is this even real?’ It feels like a dream.”
According to Sinclair, the game wasn’t as tight as it looked on the scoreboard in those final minutes.
“I know it seemed close, but again, we get it to five and we just sort of hold the ball as if we were up by five,” Sinclair said. “I felt like it should have been 25, to be honest. We should’ve lost by 25. They outplayed us hugely.”
Despite falling short of a Critelli Cup three-peat, the Ravens have a chance to string together a third straight national championships as they join the Gee-Gees at the U Sports Final 8 national championships in Vancouver.
“This is, in a lot of ways, a bonus game,” Sinclair said. “If you do what you wanna do next week, this game doesn’t really mean anything.”
The opportunity to forget the heartbreaking Critelli Cup loss to their crosstown rivals comes with a serious asterisk: they have to win it all.
“It could also mean a lot if we don’t turn around and change and get really pissed off and clean up some things,” Sinclair said.
The Ravens will play their first matchup of the national championship on March 13 in pursuit of another banner for the Ravens’ Nest rafters.
Ahead of next weekend’s redemption opportunity, the recently crowned OUA coach of the year described what the team mentality needs to be for a turnaround at nationals.
“Being pissed off.”
Featured photo by Emma Fazakas.
