The Ravens women’s basketball team lost their first game in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) since October 2016 as they fell to the Lakehead University Thunderwolves 56-52 on Nov. 17.
Lakehead forward Leashja Grant led the way with 30 points and 24 rebounds. Grant won OUA Player of the Year in 2018, averaging 22.3 points and 14.1 rebounds-per-game.
Grant said the Thunderwolves came prepared and learned from their mistakes after losing to the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees the previous night.
“We know that they would punish us for every little mistake so that was the mindset going into this like the little things count,” she said.
Grant got off to a hot start, driving at Carleton’s defence and scored in a variety of ways around the rim as Lakehead led 20-15 after the first quarter.
“I just feel like we could have played a lot better,” Ravens forward Emma Kiesekamp said. “We really got destroyed by [Grant] . . . but we were trying.”
Carleton bounced back to tie the game in the third quarter—led by Madison Reid’s 13 points—as both teams traded baskets late. However, Grant hit two free throws at the end while Ravens guard Alex Trivieri missed a layup to close out the game.
“There were positive keys to the game,” Kiesekamp added. “We were fighting to get back but at the end, we couldn’t keep it together.”
The Thunderwolves poured onto the court in celebration afterwards.
“To be honest . . . I was very very intimidated [facing Carleton] but I couldn’t show it,” Grant said. “I mean, national champs, we just beat the number four team in the nation—that’s crazy.”
Grant has taken the long road to Lakehead. She attended high school in Kansas before playing for the Trinity Valley Cardinals, a junior college in Athens, Texas for two years, and one year at Texas Tech University.
She also played for the Bahamas national team this summer.
After sitting out a season, she came to Lakehead and led them to a 16-8 record last year, their first winning season since 2015. The team is 5-1 in Grant’s final year so far.
“Coming into my last year, I know I have to be as focused as possible because I don’t get this year back,” she said.
Carleton double-teamed her with Kiesekamp guarding her for the most part, as Trivieri, Alyssa Cerino and Nicole Gilmore helped out.
“She’s so strong and she has soft hands and she has really good footwork, which makes her a dangerous player in the post,” Kiesekamp said.
Kiesekamp said it’s exciting to face Grant because it’s a good learning experience.
Trivieri called the game “a wake-up call” for the Ravens as the loss “came from within.”
“Based on performance-wise, they definitely deserved to win and that will help us a lot in practice now that we know we can’t come into games like we are national champions,” she said.
Kiesekamp said the team’s leaders—Gilmore, Trivieri, and Cynthia Dupont—stayed positive after the game as they talked with teammates.
“Take this feeling that you feel right now, of [the opposing team] cheering and how happy they are and just take it to the next game and you should want it so much more now, just so you don’t feel like this ever again,” Kiesekamp said, describing how she’ll move forward after this loss.
The Ravens host the Brock University Badgers and the McMaster University Marauders on Nov. 23-24 respectively.
—With files from Tim Austen
Photo by Tim Austen
