The Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team dropped their first pre-season game to the visiting University of Regina Cougars 80-65 on Oct. 1.
Ravens centre Heather Lindsay led the team with 19 points and eight rebounds while Nicole Gilmore and Elizabeth Leblanc also contributed 12 points and three rebounds each.
Carleton raced off to an early advantage as Ravens guard Jenjen Abella drilled a three-pointer.
Lindsay then rebounded a missed shot from Gilmore and Cynthia Dupont hit two free throws to extend the lead to 14-2.
However, Regina bounced back with a offensive streak of their own, capped off as the Cougars’ Kyanna Giles stole the ball off Gilmore and found an open Lauryn Prokop to tie the game at 16.
The second quarter started with Carleton ahead 21-19 and quickly settled into a back-and-forth scoring affair. Lindsay started off the scoring after picking up a pass under the basket, extending the lead to 23-20 before Regina’s Caitlin Zacharias hit a three-pointer to tie the game up at 23.
The Ravens went scoreless for most of the latter half of the quarter as Regina built up a strong 39-28 lead by halftime.
The Ravens were able to rebound, getting off to a promising start in the second half with four straight points as Leblanc put in her own rebound as well as finding a cutting Dupont to trim the lead to 39-32.
However, Carleton wouldn’t get much closer than that as the Cougars extended the score to 45-34 with a Giles drive to the basket.
The Ravens went on a mini-run in the fourth, as Gilmore and Catherine Traer scored off hook shots to cut the lead down to 61-52.
Once again, the Cougars responded with a corner three-pointer by Sara Hubenig, followed up by a steal and layup by Carolina Goncalves. An open three-ball by Zacharias put the game out of Carleton’s reach at 71-58 with three minutes remaining.
“We played a very good team today . . . We definitely needed to match their intensity. They were really really aggressive and we shied away from contact a little too much I think,” said Traer, who had six points and four rebounds in the game.
“They’re a good team, we didn’t play very well. They out-toughed us,” said Ravens head coach Taffe Charles.
Regina had 12 assists compared to Carleton’s six. The Cougars also out-shot Carleton, going 29-for-57 (50.8 per cent) compared to the Ravens’ 18-for-62 (29 per cent).
“I think we need to make a lot of improvements to be honest with you, we’ve got to remind ourselves that this year isn’t last year. We think it’s last year. We think we’re pretty good and we’re not,” said Charles, who added that he saw the game as an important test to see the team’s progression and weaknesses.
“We don’t play as hard as we need to in practice, so whenever there’s a game now, we don’t play the same level, the same intensity, we don’t practice how we’re supposed to play and that’s probably the biggest problem we got right now,” Charles said.
Traer said the team still needs to build cohesion.
“We need to find our chemistry, our groove and from there, I think we have all the pieces to the puzzle,” she said.
The Ravens will travel to Kamloops, BC, for the Tournament Capital Centre on Oct. 6 before starting the regular season at home against the Guelph Gryphons on Nov. 3.
Photo by Meagan Casalino
