The Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team split their games against the Laurentian University Voyageurs and the Nipissing University Lakers on Jan. 11 and 12.
“It was disappointing on the defensive end. We were just poor on the defensive end,” Ravens head coach Taffe Charles said. “That’s one of the things that losing actually helps. You get to figure out where your team is at.”
The Ravens lost to the Voyageurs 69-66—snapping their two-year undefeated road winning streak in Ontario—before beating the Lakers 68-40.
“It wasn’t because of a lack of effort,” Charles said. “We just couldn’t make shots.”
He pointed out how they had 25 uncontested shots against Laurentian but weren’t able to make the comeback after trailing in the first half.
“I think it’s our job as coaches to get these kids ready to play and I think that we probably didn’t get them as ready to play as we liked,” he added. “It falls on me.”
Charles said the “warning signs” for the team’s poor defence were evident in the victories in Toronto the previous week. However, he said the team is more focused as a result.
“Well, I don’t think we rebounded the ball as well as we liked,” he said. “Just because we don’t have that big [centre] in the middle, we need to do it as a group.”
The team had the same amount of rebounds as Laurentian–43 each.
“Defensively, we’re not covering the ball as well as we like,” Charles said. “We’re not as big as we were—we’re not as long as we were. We go a little bit smaller on the wings and we’re not as big inside so our margin for error is a little bit less.”
Part of this, Charles said, is due to losing players such as Catherine Traer, Heather Lindsay and U Sports Defensive player of the year Elizabeth Leblanc from last season.
With seven new players, Charles pointed out that about “70” per cent the focus in practices has gone more towards the offence. Before, practices used to be more around defence.
“We don’t help our teammates,” he said. “We don’t compensate for [lack of size and length] by helping our teammates.” Communication between players and younger players being in proper defensive stance are other key areas for improvement, according to him.
“The game against Laurentian was a classic example of one against one. It should be one against five but it was like one against one,” he said. “Our defence has always been predicated upon team defence and our team defence has been very poor in the last three games.”
Another challenge has been balancing a roster with a lot of veterans and rookies.
“You want to move forward with [the veterans], but you also have to go backwards with the other ones,” he said.
Charles added how while the leaders have done a great job with team cohesion, they need to perform more consistently and trust their teammates more defensively.
Veteran guard Nicole Gilmore had 16 points against Nipissing and 24 against Laurentian. Forward Alyssa Cerino had 12 points against Nipissing and 11 against Laurentian.
“The power is within them to actually carry. I think they have enough ability to carry this,” Charles said. “They’ve shown flashes of being excellent players in this league but they got to keep showing it.”
Charles also said how he’d like to get the younger players more playing time as rookie Mallory Katz scored her first-ever regular season points against Nipissing. He has another goal in mind as well.
“Our defence will be better,” he said. “I promise you that.”
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