The Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team showed no signs of slowing their Capital Hoops dynasty on Friday night, rolling past the uOttawa Gee-Gees 87–60 at TD Place.
Powered by Kyana-Jade Poulin’s record-breaking 28 points, the Ravens captured their fifth straight win in the classic Bytown matchup.
Poulin broke the single-game record in a women’s Capital Hoops game –- one point shy of the overall tournament record.
“I think we were really just moving the ball a lot, which made me open,” Poulin said post-game. “We were just playing with each other. I think it was everybody else that just got me open.”
After a close first half, Carleton pulled away in the third quarter, putting up 28 points and then locking down defensively to secure the victory.
“I think we came into the second half and wanted to play better team defense,” Ravens head coach Dani Sinclair said after the game. “At the end of the day, I think our depth showed itself.”
With the win, Carleton (14-5) sits at second in the OUA East Division and uOttawa (10-9) is in fourth.
“Even though it’s not, it feels like a must-win kind of game,” Sinclair said. “It’s an easy game to be part of the play. It doesn’t take a lot to be motivated.”
The Ravens – coming off two comeback Capital Hoops wins – started strong this year, taking a 15-4 lead early in the first quarter and pushing the Gee-Gees to take a timeout in the first five minutes of the game.
Ottawa forwards Allie McCarthy and Bailey Russell closed the gap quickly, raining down shots from all over the offensive zone.
Sinclair said her squad knew uOttawa the pair would be “hard to deal with.”
“They’re always able to turn it on,” she said.
But Carleton veterans Poulin and Urban put up a combined 20 points to hold the lead by one, 20-19, at the end of the first quarter.
The Gee-Gees claimed their first lead of the game, 21-20, early in the second. The teams traded points up to halftime, both putting up 19 in the back and forth quarter.
Carleton led 39-38 at the half.
“I mean, it was a beautiful first half,” GeeGees head coach Stéphanie Mondou said after the game. “We played a similar way last weekend where we were on fire. The first half, we shot for about 50 per cent, everything was going well.
“And then the second half — defensively — the other team made a comeback.”
The Ravens outscored uOttawa 29-10 in the third quarter with big contributions from centre Abany Deng (5 points) and guard Catherine Oliver (6). Rookie guard Arek Akeg locked down the defensive zone, recording two crucial steals.
“What we did in the third and fourth quarter was also the plan pregame,” Sinclair said. “We didn’t change it at halftime — we just actually executed it.”
Poulin said the team effort was “very impressive,” especially the performances from newer players.
“I’m very proud of them,” she said. “I think they showed up, and it didn’t seem like it was a bigger game than it was.”
The Gee-Gees couldn’t shut down the Ravens’ chemistry in the fourth quarter, only putting up 12 points to the Ravens’ 19. Gee-Gees’ leading scorer McCarthy ended with 25 points.
Mondou noted that Carleton shut down uOttawa’s key players throughout the game, including Russell, who ended with 10 points.
“Carleton was putting so much pressure that it was taking her outside of our offensive structure,” she said.
“I think we have a talented group. I think we still haven’t put all the pieces together.”
The Ravens will be back on the court this Sunday, taking on the Brock Badgers in their last home game of the regular season. Tipoff is 2 p.m.
“Now that it’s over, you can kind of enjoy the fact that you got to do it,” Sinclair said.
Featured image by Simon McKeown/the Charlatan
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