In a back-and-forth, competitive affair, the Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team defeated the Brock Badgers 66-54 Nov. 16 at the Ravens’ Nest, thanks to a game-changing fourth-quarter performance from third-year guard Kendall MacLeod.
After a slow start, MacLeod took over in the fourth quarter, grabbing rebound after rebound under the Badgers’ hoop and converting them into points, ending the night with a game-high 26 points.
“I was focused,” MacLeod said. “After a rough start I seemed to warm up.”
The Brockville, Ont. native also recorded three assists and nine rebounds in the win.
Ravens head coach Taffe Charles, who also acknowledged MacLeod’s slow start, offered an idea as to why she was able to ramp things up late in the game.
“I am not quite sure of what she did, but she started to shoot more and wanted to take the shots,” Charles said.
MacLeod signified her game changing performance with an impressive drive to the hoop in the fourth quarter that made the score 54-48 for the Ravens. From then on, the home team never looked back, going on 12-6 run and stopping the Badgers from mustering a comeback.
Despite the strong finish, the game started slowly as the Ravens failed to make critical shots in the first three quarters, allowing the Badgers to lead the game throughout most of this Ontario University Athletics East affair.
Both teams gambled in the first quarter with three point shots, but many missed the mark, as the opening frame ended with a 12-11 Badgers lead.
The Ravens, then leading 22-18 four minutes into the second quarter, appeared to be pulling away but the Badgers were able to sink two three-pointers late, as the home team held a narrow 23-22 lead at the half.
As the third-quarter got underway, the Badgers managed to keep the Ravens man-to-man defence spread out and continued their hot shooting from the beyond the arc.
A foul late in the third-quarter by first-year Ravens forward Genavieve Melatti allowed Badgers guard Hilary Woodside to hit two free throws making the score 39-37 for the St. Catherines, Ont. outfit.
The quarter ended with MacLeod getting fouled and going 1-2 in free throws, before she sealed the deal for the Ravens in the closing 10 minutes of the game.
Despite the win, Charles said the Ravens were not at their best, stating frustration in the lack of scoring and not taking advantage of opportunities that kept his team behind most of the game.
“We are better then we showed, we failed to make free throws, and we were not capitalizing on our chances,” he said.
Charles said that the key to winning was that the team stayed positive and kept playing.
The Canadian Interuniversity Sport seventh-ranked Ravens completed the weekend sweep to go 2-0 on the season, after defeating the Guelph Gryphons 58-47 the previous evening. They will look to extend their winning streak to three games this weekend when they visit Laurier University and the University of Waterloo.