The Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team concluded their season with two road wins on the weekend. They defeated the Laurentian Voyageurs by a score of 75-55, then topped the Nipissing Lakers 59-43.
“We’ve maybe had—on paper—better teams than them but that doesn’t mean we’ve always come out with the victory,” Ravens head coach Taffe Charles said of the victory at Laurentian. “[I’m] pretty happy about the result. Probably could have played a little bit better—it was a tough road trip and I think we executed very well in the second half of that game.”
The Ravens were able to jump out to an early lead in the first quarter, and held the Voyageurs to just six points. By the half, Carleton extended the lead to 27-19.
Carleton never trailed from that point onward, and walked away with the 75-55 victory. Heather Lindsay lead the way offensively for the Ravens, scoring 17 points while adding 18 rebounds.
“With that win, it put us in a better spot for playoffs (getting a first round bye and home playoff game Saturday), so we went into it knowing that it was an important game and did what we had to do,” said Ravens guard Stephanie Carr via text, who scored 13 points in the game.
The following night, the Ravens travelled to North Bay to take on the Nipissing Lakers.
The Ravens once again jumped out to an early lead, trailing briefly in the opening quarter, but never looked back from there as they led 34-18 at the half.
Carleton led the game by margins as high as 22 at one point in the game, and ultimately won 59-43.
“I don’t think we were as focused as we should have been—last game of the regular season it was one of those games that didn’t mean a whole bunch for us, however as much as I wanted to make them think it was, I think we played that way,” Charles said. “We did what we needed to do to win, but I don’t think we played particularly well.”
“We didn’t play as well as we can, which was disappointing because we wanna be in the best shape possible for playoffs, but in the end we got the result,” Carr said.
The Ravens will now prepare for their first playoff game on March 5 at the Ravens’ Nest. Their opponent will be the winner of a preliminary match-up between Laurier and Windsor.
Charles stressed the importance of defending and rebounding in order to succeed in the playoffs.
“I think those are the two things that we are known for,” he said. “When we’ve been successful we’ve done that really well. We’ve been sporadic in doing that though, over the last couple games.”
“When we’ve lost we haven’t defended and rebounded well. And when we do, we’re very successful, so hopefully we can get that done this upcoming weekend,” he said.
As the Ravens prepare for their opening playoff game, Carr said they are less focused on the potential opponent and instead focusing on their own play.
“At the risk of sounding overconfident, if we play the way we need to play we can beat anyone,” said Carr. “So the opponent doesn’t matter as much as what team we decide to come out as.”
The Ravens will host Laurier or Windsor on March 5 at the Ravens’ Nest.
