The Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team is on a roll.
After an impressive victory over the cross-town rival University of Ottawa Gee-Gees in the Capital Hoops Classic, the Ravens (13-3) built on that momentum with two convincing victories Jan. 25 and 26.
The women hammered the last-place York University Lions 83-41 on Jan. 25, before coming back the following night and matching their highest point total of the year in an 87-57 win over the Laurentian University Lady Vees.
The two victories push the Ravens’ winning streak to seven games.
The Ravens haven’t lost a game since dropping a surprising 61-57 decision to the Lady Vees back on Jan. 4, but it became clear early on in both contests that Carleton wasn’t going to lose its second game of the month.
“We don’t want to drop games and lose the advantage that we’ve built over Ottawa, so that’s the most important thing for us,” Ravens head coach Taffe Charles said.
The fifth-ranked team in the country jumped all over the Lions Friday night, opening up a 22-9 lead after the opening quarter.
Led by star fifth-year guard Alyson Bush, who had 17 points in the affair, Carleton was in full control right until the final buzzer.
Things were much the same the following night against the Lady Vees, when Carleton opened the game on a 10-0 run in front of a small crowd inside the Ravens Nest—it was a lead the Ravens would never relinquish.
“There was a little bit of extra motivation here after that [earlier] loss [against Laurentian],” Charles said.
Using solid shooting from beyond the arc and various weapons inside the paint, the Ravens went into the locker room with a commanding 43-22 lead at the half.
The duo of Bush and sophomore Darcy Hawkins was simply too much to handle, as the two outscored the Lady Vees on their own in the opening half by putting up 24 points—Bush accounting for 14 of those.
As she often does, the Ottawa native would go on to lead the team with a game-high 18 points, while also adding seven rebounds and three assists on the evening. Those seven boards were also a game-high, as the Ravens dominated on the glass and gave themselves plenty of second chances by grabbing 27 rebounds on the offensive end.
After such a heavy schedule this week, Charles admitted it was a “grind,” but said he was very pleased with the team’s effort—an effort that was exemplified by the success in the rebounding department.
In the earlier meeting between these two teams, the Ravens could not cope with Laurentian star Sasha Polishchuk, who racked up a season-high 34 points in the victory.
The Lady Vees rely heavily on the fifth-year guard—who is currently second in the country in points per game—and it showed on Saturday night with Polishchuk out of the lineup.
“It absolutely helped,” Charles said of Polishchuk’s absence. “When you take 20 points out of their lineup everybody else is put in a different role, so it would have been a different game somewhat.”
“Our kids were looking forward to it and when we found out she wasn’t playing they were a little disappointed. Hopefully she gets healthy and we get the chance to play against them again in the playoffs.”
Laurentian struggled early in the contest, shooting 29.6 per cent from the field in the opening half. Of course, Carleton’s stingy defense—which came into the contest allowing the second fewest points per game in the country (51.8)—was a big factor.
“We want to control the defensive end of the floor and I thought we did a good job of that,” Charles said.
“That’s our team, we’re a defensive team and if we score points that’s great, but at the end of the day we want to try and get stops.”
While the visitors did have more success filling the basket in the second half, the damage had been done by the time the teams hit the locker room. Following an evenly played third quarter, the Ravens again kicked things into high gear in the final frame, putting up 30 points to top off an impressive scoreline.
After playing four games in one week and creating some breathing space atop the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East division, the Ravens will now get some well-deserved rest.
The women don’t hit the court again until Feb. 1, when they travel to Kingston for a matchup with the Queen’s University Golden Gaels.
