The Ravens women’s basketball team remained undefeated in the preseason after a 52-49 win over the McGill University Martlets on Oct. 5.
A back-and-forth affair with four lead changes, Carleton managed to escape all four quarters ahead—never by fewer than two points, but also never by more than five. For Ravens head coach Taffe Charles, that small margin of victory was too close for comfort—especially coming off a national championship-winning season.
“We’ve just got to make more shots,” Charles said post-game. “We’re missing free throws—we’re missing open threes.”
“We’ve got to decide whether we can be better shooters, or we’re gonna be in a lot of close games,” he added.
Carleton struggled from the foul line, only converting on five out of 15 of their free throws all night. In contrast, McGill converted on five of seven.
However, Carleton came back strong after big baskets from McGill and rarely allowing the Martlets to eclipse their point totals. In total, despite the tightness of the score, Carleton led for over 36 of the 40 total minutes of game time.
Leading the charge for Carleton was fourth-year forward Alyssa Cerino, whose 14 points and 10 rebounds were team- and game-highs. Other notables for Carleton included second-year guard Madison Reid, whose six second-half points were the most of any Raven, and fifth-year guard Nicole Gilmore, whose proficiency at stealing the ball afforded her many easy breakaway buckets.
After the game, Cerino, like her coach, held reservations about her team’s play. She is entering her first year as a starter for the Ravens.
“I think I played okay—I definitely could have played better,” Cerino said. “I think as a team, we definitely could’ve played better. I think rebounding was a big thing. They got a lot of second chances.”
After a relatively strong first half from which they emerged up 29-24, the Ravens suffered from defensive lapses in the third quarter and watched their lead start to erode. They entered the fourth quarter up 40-38 and watched as McGill sank the first buckets of the final stanza to seize the lead—but the lead didn’t last long.
Carleton responded quickly. Despite only recording two total points after the halftime buzzer, it was Cerino who stole the show in the fourth. She recorded two massive blocks in the latter stages of the frame, both preserving the Ravens’ tenuous grasp on the lead. Cerino contributed three of Carleton’s five total rejections in the game.
It’s this type of strong defensive play that Charles wants to instill in all his young players.
“Again, I didn’t think we communicated very well defensively,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of young kids on our team, and young kids on young teams—they just tend to not defend very well. They’ve just got to get better at it, and we’ve got to understand how important it is to do it in practice.”
Carleton’s basketball now sits at 5-0 in exhibition, including a clean sweep of the Helen Campbell Tournament at the University of New Brunswick on September 28-30. However, both Charles and Cerino, the latter of whom was named MVP of that tournament, take little solace in their undefeated status.
“You know, while it definitely feels good, there’s definitely a lot to work on,” Cerino said. “The fact that we can grind out a win and not play our very best is very good, but we know that, once the season starts, it’s just going to keep getting tougher.”
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Charles said. “We don’t understand that this is going to go up to another level yet.”
The Ravens women’s basketball team will close out its exhibition season with three consecutive weekend home games as part of the McKeen Metro Glebe Tournament from Oct. 19-21, before opening up the regular season at the University of Ottawa on Oct. 26.
Photos by Spencer Colby
