Coming off a disappointing semifinal loss less than 12 hours earlier, the Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team was able to rally back and defeat the Queen’s Gaels by a score of 53-43 to take home the bronze medal at the U SPORTS women’s basketball Final 8 on March 12.
The win marks the first podium finish in the history of the program.
“I’m proud of them, proud of their effort and we just played less than twelve hours ago and just had a bitter loss,” Ravens head coach Taffe Charles said following the game. “We hadn’t lost in a long time and it’s always difficult to bounce back from a loss.”
The team jumped out to a quick start in the first quarter, as they were able to tally 18 points, while holding the Gaels to only eight points.
“Queen’s is a rival of ours and the first part of that game was pretty physical,” Charles said. “We had people who didn’t play last night that had some energy . . . It was great to have a total team effort.”
Ravens forward Heather Lindsay was only was able to play eleven minutes throughout the game due to injury. Lindsay had averaged 24.1 minutes per game in the regular season.
Catherine Traer, who was awarded Player of the Game for the Ravens, stepped up and scored 18 points along with five rebounds and two assists.
“It was a really, really tough game. I never have had to play in a bronze medal game like this before,” Traer said. “It’s a big character game and I think it really shows our character.”
The Ravens fell behind in the second and third quarter, as they were outscored a combined 28-16 and found themselves trailing by two points.
Carleton was able to rally in the fourth and limited Queen’s to only seven points while putting up 19 of their own and ending the game up 53-43.
“We talked a little bit about representing our school and representing themselves and showing true character . . . I’m happy with how we bounced back,” Charles said.
The rematch of the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Finals in the Bronze Medal game was able to cement the Ravens as the top team in Ontario—placing the highest of any Ontario team at Nationals.
“We wanted to do everything we could to make sure that we went out with a bronze medal and that we were just reasserting that OUA banner,” Traer said. “Losing to them would have been like [the OUA championship wasn’t] really ours.”
The Ravens will be going into the off-season with an opportunity to learn from the experience, as no players will be graduating from the team this year, according to Charles.
“I think you gotta go through the wars to actually learn and we did a great job. We won the OUA and that was a big step for us,” Charles said. “We have a great opportunity to come back and hopefully when we come back we do a better job of handling how we play in the [semifinals].”
