Despite being on the back foot throughout and playing shorthanded, the Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team fought out a narrow 69-62 loss to the Drury University Panthers—last year’s NCAA Division II Midwestern champions—in their opening game of the season.
Only seven players were dressed for Carleton on the first day of the Can-Am shootout.
The team came out on the defensive, falling behind by 11 to the Panthers at the end of the first quarter.
“They’re a pressure team and there aren’t a lot of pressure teams in our league. Handling the ball and being composed is just difficult for me,” said Marlee Ball, a fifth-year guard who transferred to Carleton from Algoma University this year. Ball had four turnovers.
Sloppy play and poor shooting hampered the team in the first quarter, with Carleton struggling to find their rhythm. The full-court press impacted inbounds plays with the Ravens struggling, committing multiple three-second inbound violations and half-court advancement violations.
The Ravens clawed themselves back into the game in the second quarter, going to OUA All-Star Alyssa Cerino frequently in the post.
Cerino played a well-rounded game with 10 points, seven rebounds, two assists and a staggering five blocks.
As the Ravens went to the locker room down seven points, they reassessed and came out going to Algoma transfer Marlee Ball frequently.
Ball—who had to sit out last season due to OUA transfer policies—lead the Ravens in scoring, with 16 points on 8-14 shooting.
“It’s been a year-and-a-half since I played in a game … Just being in the Carleton system is a lot different then what I’m used to. Actually being in a game doing it is a lot different,” said Ball after the game.
Ball and Jaclyn Ronson fought the team back into the game. Ronson shot an efficient 3-5 from the field, 2-4 from range and 4-4 from the line.
Then-rookie Kali Pocrnic had to sit most of the third quarter with four fouls, forcing the Ravens to effectively play with six players.
Far from mid-season form, this fatigue clearly impacted the Ravens as they were playing the much longer bench of the Panthers. Mistakes found their way back into the game and the deficit proved too large.
“Right now, we’re just focused on what we’re doing and we knew that their pressure was going to cause us a lot of problems. So, we were just going to go out and see how that goes,” Cheng said.
Cheng said he wasn’t concerned with off-the-court players or fielding a full roster.
“There’s some injuries. We care about the people who are injured. But we’re focused on the players that are on the court.”
Cheng summed up his first game as a head coach as having a lot of “tremendous positives.”
“We played hard. We didn’t succumb to the numbers we have seven and they have I don’t know how many they have. I think there’s lot of opportunities to learn and get better.”
Photo by Tim Austen
With files by Michael Sun
