W-BASKETBALL ROUNDUP: Windsor, Laurier roll to ninth wins in a row

(Photo: Kha Vo)

Wednesday, January 14

Western 49 @ Laurier 75

The No. 8 Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks women's basketball team set a new team record for most consecutive conference wins on Wednesday night as they earned their ninth straight victory with a 75-49 decision over the Western Mustangs.

The win also allowed Laurier to match their team record for best start to a season, tying the 9-1 mark they set last year and helped them keep pace with the No. 1 Windsor Lancers for most points in the conference with 18.

Leading the charge for the purple and gold was fifth year forward Whitney Ellenor of Pickering, Ont. The Hawks leading scorer recorded her second double-double of the season as she finished the game with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Ellenor connected on 7-of-16 field goals attempts and was a perfect 5-for-5 from the free throw line. She was also strong on the offensive boards with five.

Three other Hawks also finished the night scoring in double figures as Lee Anna Osei of Toronto, Nicole Morrison of Hamilton and Courtney Bruce of Orillia, Ont., each had 10 points. Osei finished the contest one rebound shy of a double-double as she also recorded nine boards.

Caroline Wolynski of London, Ont., finished as the Mustangs (2-8) top scorer picking up 15 points in a losing effort.

Laurier, who were playing their first game since joining the national rankings in 2014-15, came flying out of the gates in front of a purple-clad crowd. The Hawks overwhelmed a young Mustangs team as they rolled to a 17-0 lead and finished the opening quarter up 27-6.

Facing a 21-point deficit entering the second quarter, Western looked to work their way back into the contest but a combination of strong defence and hot shooting by Laurier allowed them to build their lead to 25 at halftime.

In the second half, head coach Paul Falco was able to spread around the minutes, getting many of his bench players into the game for significant minutes. One of those players was Bruce who was playing in just her third game of the year. The fourth year guard connected on 4-of-5 shots from the field to collect a season-high 10 points in just 12 minutes of play.

As a team, the Hawks would finish the contest shooting 43.1 percent from the floor while limiting the Mustangs to just 33.3 percent. Rebounding also played a key role is Laurier's strong performance as they outrebounded Western 45-33.

Next up for Laurier is a showdown with the top-ranked Lancers (9-0) as the Hawks head to Windsor on Saturday afternoon. Game time is set for 3 p.m. and can be seen live on OUA.tv.

Source: Laurier Golden Hawks

Windsor 76 @ Waterloo 60

The Waterloo Warriors put together a spirited effort but fell to the CIS #1 ranked Windsor Lancers by a score of 76-60 on Wednesday evening at the PAC.
 
The deciding portion of the game was the 18-4 run by the Lancers to start the second quarter and establish a 20 point lead. Although the margin was not much more the rest of the game, the Warriors were unable to close the gap.
 
After Windsor started the game with an 11-2 lead, the Warriors had six different players contribute to an end of first quarter run and make it 24-18 at the first break in favour of the Lancers. By half time, Windsor was comfortably ahead 48-28, and shooting 58%. The Warriors were just at 35% and struggled from long range.
 
The two teams played pretty even during the second half, each shooting in the mid 30% and Waterloo having the slight second-half edge. Windsor ended the evening with a slight 35-34 rebounding edge en route to the 16-point victory.
 
Korissa Williams led the way for Windsor with 26 points, including six in the second quarter run. Kristine LaLonde was the other Lancer in double figures with 13 points.
 
Waterloo spread the scoring over all ten players who played, with only Amy Jarvis (Burlington) at 13 points being in double figures. Laura Burnett (Heidelberg) and Jenel Ulman(Hamilton) had 8 points each in the loss.
 
Windsor now has a 9-0 record and first place in OUA West while Waterloo holds down third place in the division with a 3-7 record.

Source: Waterloo Warriors

York 49 @ Ryerson 66

Stingy defence propelled the No. 9 Ryerson Rams women's basketball team to a 66-49 victory over the York Lions on Wednesday night at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.

Sofia Paska (Etobicoke, Ont.) had a game-high 14 points while Mariah Nunes (Ajax, Ont.) added 13 and both Siki Jez (Kitchener, Ont.) and Keneca Pingue-Giles (Winnipeg, Man.) finished with 12 to lead the Rams to victory.

Both teams struggled shooting the ball to start the contest and sat at a 4-4 tie midway through the quarter. The forward combination of Paska and Katherine Follis (Toronto) kick-started the Rams offence off the bench as they combined for eight of Ryerson's 13 first quarter points. Ryerson led 13-11 after ten minutes.

Ryerson started to find a rhythm in the second quarter and were able to force several Lions turnovers to stake the Rams to a 30-21 halftime advantage.

Despite forcing 14 first half turnovers and 33 by the final buzzer, head coach Carly Clarke wasn't entirely pleased with her team's play after creating those opportunities.

"I think we played a little rushed once we turned them over. We keep talking about possession over position and we have to take care of the ball when we make an opponent make a mistake. Today we turned over a bunch of our steals instead of converting on them and that's an area we'll have to improve on."

Through three quarters the Rams led 45-34 and put the game out of reach by starting the fourth with an 11-1 run to go on to the 66-49 victory.

With the win the Rams improve to 8-3 on the season while York drops to 2-8. 

Source: Ryerson Rams