The Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team got off to slow starts against the York University Lions and Queen’s University Gaels on Feb. 8 and 9, respectively.
“The only troubling trend that we’ve had in the last three games is that we have started off pretty slowly,” Ravens head coach Taffe Charles said. “You can’t do that and expect to win games at this time of the year,” he added.
Charles said he’s “not sure” why the team has started slowly but mentioned fatigue could be a factor. “We didn’t have a lot in the tank,” he said on the Queen’s game.
The Ravens beat the Lions 66-47 the previous night, trailing 19-8 after the first quarter. Carleton guard Cynthia Dupont led the comeback with a game-high 17 points as the Ravens held York to 15 points total in the second and third quarters.
The following night, Carleton fell behind early again, as a confident Queen’s team took a 22-14 lead after one quarter. The Ravens made a comeback—led by guard Nicole Gilmore’s game-high 23 points—but fell short in a 74-70 loss.
“[Gilmore is] in excellent physical condition, so she can play a lot of minutes,” Charles said. “You want to make sure [she] gets supported a little bit better. Obviously, it’s her last year and she knows what to do and she’s performing.” Meanwhile, it was senior’s night at Queen’s for Marianne Alarie and Maddie Morris. It was also their first win against Carleton since 2015.
“In some ways, it couldn’t go much better, to be honest with you,” Queens head coach Dave Wilson said.
“It’s always nice to get a win on senior’s night. We had a great crowd out that were very appreciative of this being our last home game of the graduating athletes,” he added.
“It was probably the best gift that the team could give Marianne and I,” Morris said. “It was definitely breathtaking.”
Alarie led Queen’s with 21 points while Morris chipped in seven points in their final regular season home games. Her whole family from Sudbury came to see her play and she said it’s probably the final time her brothers would watch her play.
“Obviously, at the end of all the presentations, it was very touching,” she said.
Wilson said belief was important in beating Carleton. “It’s in everything,” he said. “To me, it’s one of the most critical elements of success is in the belief that you can do it.”
He said building “an independence in confidence” is one the team’s goals. “I make fun with our players,” he said. “I tell them I have a stack of confidence cards on my desk so if they need confidence, I can just hand them a card.”
“Taffe’s done such a great job with Carleton,” he added. “He’s got his kids to believe in what he’s doing and how’re they’re doing it to the point where yeah, they’re confident enough to execute it.”
Charles added he’s looking for other veterans, aside from Gilmore, to step up consistently. “We’re struggling right now to find a second or third person to consistently perform at a high level,” he noted.
Charles said Carleton’s focus is on giving veterans rest as the regular season winds down.
“In hindsight, you probably could have played some younger kids, get them more opportunities,” he said. “Now, we got to change our focus and try to figure out new ways to be as fresh as we possibly can.”
Photo by Tim Austen
