After being ahead for the majority of the game, the Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team suffered a 46-44 loss to the University of Windsor Lancers in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Final March 5.
Ravens head coach Taffe Charles said he was impressed with his team’s effort against the second-best team in the nation, who captured their third straight OUA title with the win. The St. Denis Centre in Windsor was packed with Lancer fans cheering on the home team.
“It was a fairly hostile environment ” Charles said. “I thought the girls held up really well despite the circumstances.”
The Ravens jumped out to an early 19-11 lead thanks to a handful of three-pointers in the first quarter. They increased their lead to 27-19 by the half, but the Lancers whittled the margin down to just four points going into the fourth quarter.
In the final minutes of the game, the score was knotted at 44 until OUA player of the year Jessica Clemencon, who scored a game-high 17 points, sank a free throw to give the Lancers a one-point lead. The Ravens were forced to give up possession in their end 3.3 seconds before the buzzer after an offensive foul, and Clemencon sank another free throw to cement her team’s OUA title.
“We had our chances to win it,” Charles said. “I thought we had some shots at the end of the game that we probably had an opportunity to make.”
“At the end of the day, we held a pretty good team to only 46 points in their own gym,” he continued.
The last time the Ravens played the Lancers was in November, when they lost by 20 points.
“It was a really good effort from the ladies, but obviously they were very disappointed, I mean, they wanted to win pretty badly.”
In order to qualify for the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) national championships, the Ravens now face a must-win situation March 11-12, when they host the CIS Central Regional tournament.
The team will tip off against the University of Winnipeg Wesmen March 11, a team they’ve never met. To advance to the Final 8, the Ravens must win that game as well as the next day’s matchup against either St. Francis Xavier or the University of Alberta.
“We’ve just got to continue doing what we’re doing,” Charles said. “I think the girls are really engaged right now in terms of what needs to happen, in terms of the game plan and the execution.”
The Wesmen haven’t played since Feb. 26.
“I’m not sure what we’re going to get out of [the Wesmen] in terms of their intensity level. It’s one of those things where you have a bit of rest, but you have a bit of rust, too,” he said. “So we may be a little bit weary, I guess, but at the same time we’re pretty battle-tested.”