It was a successful weekend for the Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team, winning two games and firmly planting themselves in second place in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East division.
The women overpowered the Queen’s Gaels 67-53 Feb. 11 in Kingston.
The team racked up a quick 11-3 lead, but saw that lead quickly dwindle to a single point before kicking their game into overdrive and strengthening their advantage.
“I think we just realized we had to get it done,” said fourth-year guard Alyson Bush. “We had a bit of a run ourselves, and we just dug in with the little bit of energy we had left and kinda put it together in the end.”
Powered by Bush’s 15 points, including seven in the third quarter, the Ravens re-established their lead and never looked back. The Ravens used the early cushion they’d built to slowly distance themselves from the Gaels, ensuring that Queen’s couldn’t get back in the game.
“I was just trying to keep the same momentum going, I guess,” said head coach Taffe Charles. “I don’t know if we were able to [keep it], exactly. I thought we played okay this weekend, but playing on the road is definitely a different animal.”
The Gaels received most of their offensive output through second-year guard Liz Boag and fifth-year guard Brittany Moore, who each contributed 11 points in a losing effort. The loss dropped Queen’s to fifth in the OUA East.
“I think we did really well,” Bush said. “We’re kind of in playoff mode now, so we’re kind of taking each game by game and trying to build on that to ultimately build to our future goals of doing well in our playoff games.”
Earlier in the weekend, the Ravens easily knocked aside the Royal Military College Paladins by a score of 77-48.
The first quarter saw the Ravens dominate early, as the 23-7 deficit was too much for the Paladins to handle. Carleton’s offence kept firing on all cylinders, while a few timely defensive plays kept the ball out of RMC’s hands.
“Our goal is always to play well defensively and our focus on most games is to rebound and kind of get after those 50/50 balls,” Bush said. “I think we’ve been pretty successful with that over the past few weekends.”
“That’s the million dollar question,” said Charles about whether the team’s defensive game is strong enough. “We take care of the ball pretty good. I just don’t know if we defend the ball as well as we should.”
Bush once again held the scoring lead among players, racking up 23 points in the spirited contest.
The Paladins got 16 points from third-year guard Kim Egert but were unable to close the gap and, as a result, suffered their 19th consecutive loss.
The Ravens have now won seven games in a row and will tip off for their next game Feb. 17 against the University of Toronto Varsity Blues before finishing off the regular season the following evening against the Ryerson Rams.
