The Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team kept their undefeated record with a 66-36 victory over the rival University of Ottawa (U of O) Gee-Gees on Nov. 14.
The Ravens are currently in first place in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East division at 5-0.
The team started strong defensively, with Carleton coming out to a 13-2 lead. Nicole Gilmore found Catherine Traer from beyond the arc to open the scoring. Traer also drove for a basket to make it 5-0. Traer, a former Gee-Gee, led both teams in scoring with 18 points in 26 minutes.
Ravens forward Alyssa Cerino notched seven of her nine points in the first half. She finished in the post to make it 9-2.
The Gee-Gees got their offence going after the first quarter ended 13-6 for Carleton. Brigitte Lefebvre-Okwanku and Kellie Forand hit jumpers to cut the lead to 16-10.
Ravens head coach Taffe Charles called a timeout after a Carleton turnover and the offence picked up from there.
Traer scored a variety of baskets as Gilmore dished to her for a layup and she hit another three-pointer to make it 30-14. She finished with a perfect seven-for-seven shooting record from the field.
The third quarter was back and forth as Carleton outscored the U of O, 17-14. The Gees-Gees went on an 8-2 run midway through the quarter after Elizabeth Leblanc put the Ravens ahead 38-18.
Lefebvre-Okwanku made shots during the run and led the U of O with 12 points. However, the Ravens responded with a 11-2 run of their own. Two free throws by Heather Lindsay restored the gap to 20 points at 51-31 early in the fourth.
A few three-pointers helped close out the victory for the Ravens as Gilmore found Leblanc for corner three and Cynthia Dupont hit a corner three as well to make it 63-35.
Traer called the game defensive like other games against the U of O.
“It’s always tough when we play Ottawa and for me it hits home a little because I was there for four years,” Traer said.
She described the team’s offensive strategy going into the game knowing that the matchup would become a defensive struggle.
“Because we’re such similar teams defensively—we both force left, we put a lot of pressure—you got to make the tough decisions, you got to make the tough reads so that’s why you have to look at game tape,” Traer said “You have to look at where their weaknesses are.”
Carleton had six steals, grabbed 40 rebounds and held the Gee-Gees to 25.4 per cent shooting (15-59) while shooting 44.4 per cent themselves (24-54).
“Defensively, we really make it tough on them,” Charles said. “We’re pretty versatile defensively: we’re able to have different people guard different players so it makes it really tough on other teams.”
Charles also noted the offence improved a bit from their victory over the U of O at the McKeen Metro-Glebe tournament in October. He said previously he’s looking for the team to be more offensive than previous years.
The Ravens host their final home games of 2017 against the Windsor Lancers and the Western Mustangs on Nov. 17 and 18.
Photo by Meagan Casalino
