The Carleton Raven’s women’s basketball team faced a pair of away games in Northern Ontario Nov. 14-15, coming away with one victory and one loss.
On Nov. 14, the Ravens played the Nipissing Lakers, winning the game by a whopping score of 73-28 in the Lakers’ first ever Canadian Interuniversity Sport game.
Ravens head coach Taffe Charles said the team was a little inexperienced, making for an easy win.
“In the first game we played against a team that wasn’t very good unfortunately. They’re a first-year team, an expansion team, so they have a lot of work to do,” he said. “So I’d say that the first game wasn’t necessarily a great test although obviously we got the result.”
Ravens forward Lindsay Shotbolt said the road trip was a tough one, being so far away from home.
“This weekend is always a tough weekend for us because obviously it’s a pretty long road trip, going up to North Bay and then out to Sudbury, and then home,” she said.
The following day the Ravens played the Laurentian Voyageurs and lost in a much closer game, with a final score of 60-57.
The biggest barrier to the team’s success is the inexperience, which will fix itself as time goes on, Shotbolt said.
“I think that it really comes down to the inexperience on our team, but if we can tighten a couple things up like communicating on the court and taking care of the basketball . . . scoring on offense and playing really well on defense then I think we can be pretty successful,” she said.
Charles said the team played well despite the loss of the second match, with a strong defense for most of the game.
“I think that we don’t defend as well as we should be and take care of the ball as much as well should . . . those are the two thing we’re struggling with,” he said. “When we don’t get the result we’re looking for it’s usually because of one of those two things.”
Going forward, Shotbolt said the team has its eye on the playoffs, but that the key is focusing on each specific game, regardless of the stakes.
“We’ll take our game day-by-day and be as successful as we can, and hopefully it will work in our favour as the season progresses,” he said.
The team’s next game is Nov. 21 against the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks.
