The Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team lost for the first time in over a year as they fell 57-31 on Oct. 19 to the Concordia University Stingers at the McKeen Metro Glebe Tournament.
The Ravens’ last loss was to the University of Alberta Pandas 55-52 last Oct. 6.
Carleton started the game off with a three-pointer by Cynthia Dupont but would struggle offensively as the Stingers outscored them 22-12 at halftime.
Carleton made a run in the third quarter after a three-pointer by Jaclyn Ronson cut the lead to 29-25, bringing the crowd to a roaring applause. The Stingers put the game out of reach, however, led by Myriam Leclerc’s 18 points and six steals.
“I felt like we fell apart again,” fifth-year guard Nicole Gilmore said. “Our defence is our foundation and it all went downhill really fast.”
Emma Kiesekamp said the team was meshing well but the intensity fell as Concordia pulled away. “A defeating feeling,” she said.
Alyssa Cerino, who led the Ravens with 10 points, said Carleton was outworked.
“In a way, I think we needed the loss,” she said. “I feel like this is going to definitely [be] a little bit of a wake-up call.”
Gilmore called it “one of the worst feelings in the world.”
“I do feel that eventually, every team has to lose, so that time for us is now,” she added.
The Ravens turned the ball over nine times in the first quarter, and 22 times in the game compared to Concordia’s 18. It’s something players said they need to improve on.
“Not letting anybody bullying us,” Gilmore said. “I think we just have to come out, knowing that they’re fighting for it just as hard as we are so we have to out-bully them.”
Having lost five players—including all-stars Heather Lindsay and Catherine Traer—from last year, Carleton is still trying to find its offensive identity. They shot 21.7 per cent from the field and 11.5 per cent from three-point range.
“We don’t have a go-to presence inside like Heather [Lindsay],” Cerino said. “Emma’s [Kiesekamp] doing a great job but we have different types of scorers on the team—that’s important. We’re really focused on defence because that’s something that can carry over to the offence.”
Head coach Taffe Charles said the loss wasn’t unexpected: “Unfortunately as a coach, you foresee these kind of things.”
He said he’s looking forward to how his team absorbs and responds to it.
“It hasn’t hit us yet so we’re going to find out,” he said. “When you get your brains beat in, it’s going to show what kind of character we have.”
He also talked about adjusting to the reality of losing players and coming off a national championship.
“We don’t quite understand that what happened in the past, the people in the present have to pay for it,” he said.
Kiesekamp said the team will have to work even harder than last year, due to their inexperience and the target on their backs.
“Teams are coming for us . . . Obviously I want to win and I want to do my best for the team,” she said. “But, we’re not the same team we were last year so we can’t come in and expect to roll teams. We have to give it our all and everything.”
The Ravens’ next game is against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees on Oct. 26.
Photo by Tim Austen
