The Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team improved their record to 16-0 with two wins over the weekend and remain in the top spot in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East Division, ahead of Queen’s University by six points.
“We were worried about us this weekend, and how we wanted to play. We haven’t been playing as well in 2018, and we wanted to go back onto focusing what we do best and try and get some confidence back,” said Ravens head coach Taffe Charles.
Carleton stormed out of the gate against Laurentian University, starting the game on a 11-0 run. Forward Heather Lindsay dominated early, scoring the Ravens first eight points.By half, the Ravens had a commanding 47-14 lead.
The second half started in similar fashion to the start of the game as Lindsay grabbed an offensive rebound and scored five consecutive points for the Ravens. Lindsay finished with 23 points and led the team with 12 rebounds.
The Ravens depth was a key to their success as Carleton’s bench contributed 37 points. Forward Alyssa Cerino highlighted the effort from Carleton’s bench, as she went six-for-nine from the field and totaled 15 points in 18 minutes of action.
In contrast, Bailey Tabin scored Laurentian a single point from the bench. The game ended 89-36 with a Carleton victory.
Charles said the team’s depth does more than just help put up points.
“It insulates us through injuries, insulates us in case we ever get into foul trouble. Spreading out the responsibility, the minutes, the stress on the body and hopefully that can pay off at the end,” he said.
Against the Nipissing Lakers, Carleton came out with another strong start, and five minutes into the game, they led 11-3. Several Carleton fouls and a turnover helped Nippissing recover the ball multiple times. Nipissing capitalized on these early chances to battle back to an 11-18 deficit.
Carleton started to pull away in the second quarter as Nipissing missed seven consecutive shot attempts. Maria Walsh scored the Lakers’ first basket five minutes into the second after a timeout to make it 41-13. What hurt Nipissing was not their lack of chances, but their failure to execute as they took 57 field goal attempts but only scored 16 of them.
“I think we did a really good job moving the ball well, shared the ball as a team, made some shots in our own gym, which is nice, and I’m generally pleased about our offensive transition,” Charles said after the Ravens defeated Nippissing 100-44, reaching a season high point total.
Carleton had a balanced attack as four players got 13 points or more.
“I thought it was a pretty good offensive effort. Defensively I thought we could’ve been a bit tighter. Forty points is good, it’s our average [against,] but I think we gave them some easy looks,” said veteran forward Catherine Traer.
Carleton did an excellent job gaining ball possession as forwards Lindsay and Cerino each collected 11 rebounds.
The Ravens head to Toronto next weekend to take on the University of Toronto Varsity Blues and the Ryerson Rams.
