It was almost déjà vu for the Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team Feb. 19 when they tipped off against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees in their final game of the regular season.
When the Ravens last faced their crosstown rivals this season, they took the game to double overtime at the fifth annual MBNA Capital Hoops Classic and won 71-63.
This time around, however, the Ravens found themselves on the losing end of another overtime affair, falling 72-68 to the Gee-Gees at Montpetit Hall.
The game seemed to be in the Ravens’ control throughout the first two quarters as they slowly built up a lead against the Gee-Gees. By the half, they led 43-29.
“I think we definitely came out hard,” said third-year forward Alyson Bush. “We were all really excited for the game but we really let up and let them do what they wanted to do in the second half.”
The game was all about the Gee-Gees after the break. They scored 15 points in the third quarter and held the Ravens to just four points, but the Ravens remained ahead by a small margin of 47-44.
“We just let them back in the second half, it’s pretty simple,” Ravens head coach Taffe Charles said bluntly after the game. “We didn’t make enough plays at the end and we’ve got to make plays at the end of the day.”
“I think we just lost our composure,” Bush agreed. “They were pressuring us and forced us to do things we didn’t want to do. We weren’t focused at all and we didn’t get done what we had to do.”
Gee-Gees centre Hannah Sunley-Paisley gave the Ravens a hard time at both ends of the court, scoring a game high 25 points and grabbing a whopping 22 rebounds.
“She just got too many rebounds,” Charles said.
“It’s a tough task for one person to deal with especially because of [Sunley-Paisley’s] athleticism. If there’s just one person on her we’re not going to win those battles, so I don’t think the guards played well enough in terms of rebounding.”
“We weren’t rebounding at all,” Bush said, “and [that’s probably] what ruined it for us.”
After finishing their 2010-2011 campaign with a record of 18-4, the Ravens sit second in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East division. They have a first-round bye in the playoffs and will head to Toronto for the OUA East Division Final Four Feb. 26 and 27.
The Ravens’ regular season record is identical to last season’s, when the team lost to the Gee-Gees in the East final. Charles said anything could happen come the post-season.
“Right now [the team] looks very similar to the team we had last year,” Charles said. “[We] played well through the regular season but when its playoff time we [didn’t] seem to get it done.”
“We’ll find out how we’re going to do in the next couple days,” he continued, “and find out if we’re the team like last year that can’t get it done, or the team that is actually going to get it done.”