The Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team defeated the uOttawa Gee-Gees 66-60 at the 2023 Capital Hoops Classic on Friday. The victory extends Carleton’s winning run to 10 games straight and marks the Ravens’ ninth Capital Hoops victory over the Gee-Gees.
Guard Kali Pocrnic and forward Emma Kiesekamp combined for 35 points as Carleton’s lead scorers. Kiesekamp cleared the glass for the Ravens, grabbing 15 rebounds in front of a packed TD Place Arena.
While the stat sheets indicate a dominant game from the Ravens, the team struggled in the opening minutes.
With five minutes left in the first quarter, the Ravens were down by three and scored only eight points. But between the 3:04 minute mark and the end of the quarter, the Ravens went on a 7-0 run to give them a 15-8 lead to close out the first quarter.
The second quarter showed glimpses of the Ravens settling into the contest. Pocrnic scored nine of her 12 points and guard Teresa Donato finished with six points at the half.
Nerves hindered the Ravens start, according to Pocrnic.
“There’s a little bit of hype to [Capital Hoops], so it gets a little nerve-racking,” Pocrnic said. “Once we got the game going, the nerves kind of just went away.”
Pocrnic added that Kiesekamp’s scoring performance in the post helped the team find momentum.
Kiesekamp, who’s in her fifth year with the team, credited the Ravens’ veteran players for their calming presence that settled the team. She said it reminded her of when she felt nervous as a rookie playing at Capital Hoops.
“For a lot of the girls on the team it’s their first Capital Hoops at TD Place [Arena],” Kiesekamp said. “I really tried to [appear calm and focused] and other vets tried to do that.”
As Kiesekamp led the team in rebounds, her double-double demonstrated a more worrying factor for uOttawa. The Ravens outrebounded uOttawa 50-38 and doubled the Gee-Gees points in the paint with 12.
Gee-Gees head coach Rose-Anne Joly said her team’s performance in the paint is what cost them the game.
“We’re not strong at the Rim and we need to be stronger,” Joly said. “Wet didn’t go to the free-throw line enough and we had the opportunities to finish strong.”
Five lead exchanges would take place in the second quarter, but Carleton was able to walk into halftime with a 34-25 point lead.
As the game went on, Carleton tried to run away with the match but uOttawa kept crawling back. This led to a push and pull second half that frustrated Ravens head coach Dani Sinclair and kept the crowd on the edge of their seats.
When the Gee-Gees cut the Ravens 13-point lead to eight, Sinclair yelled at her players between the third and fourth quarter. She told them to control the game and continued preaching her nightly theme: “Settle, Settle.”
“There’s a lot of passion and intensity from our bench. That’s just the way we are,” Sinclair said. “No lead is really safe … so as coaches, the panic is a constant thing.”
Sinclair had a lot to panic about in the fourth quarter, when a moment of controversy sparred between the Ravens coaching staff and the scoring officials.
When guard Jacqueline Urban picked up a foul with 2:30 remaining in the game, it appeared to be logged into the scoring system twice which forced Urban to foul out of the game. Sinclair said she was unsure with what happened in the end, but wished she had Urban in the game’s dying moments.
“On our end, Jacqueline Urban only had four fouls, so that was a mistake,” Sinclair said. “We talk about having to fight through adversity and I guess that’s just another thing you have to deal with.”
Gee-Gees guard Savannah Provo committed an unsportsmanlike foul for wrapping her arms around Pocrnic with less than two minutes remaining. The Ravens received two shots and got the ball back to seal out the game.
Carleton now sits second place in the Ontario University Athletics East division with a 16-2 record. They take on Laurentian next Friday as the team aims to extend their winning record.
Featured image by Spencer Colby.
