W-BASKETBALL ROUNDUP: Stratton becomes Varsity Blues all-time career regular season scoring leader
Wednesday, February 19
York 46 @ Toronto 55
Fifth-year guard Jill Stratton notched 14 points to become the University of Toronto women's basketball all-time career regular season scoring leader as the Varsity Blues defeated the York Lions 55-46 on Wednesday night (Feb. 18) at Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport.
Stratton hit a three in the final minutes of the game to surpass Alaine Hutton as U of T's all-time leading regular season career scoring leader. Stratton now holds 1,142 in 95 regular season games over the past five seasons. The veteran guard has one regular season game remaining in her five-year career.
Stratton added five rebounds and three assists to her team-high 14 points.
"It's pretty crazy," said Stratton. "When I first started I never would have expected to get this far because scoring was never really my best quality. When I hit that three, it was just a relief because there was a lot of pressure so I just wanted to get it over with."
Alanna Garner had nine points and Julie Longauer added seven points and led the Blues with six rebounds in the win.
The win moves Toronto (10-8) into a tie for second place with the Queen's Gaels (10-7) in the OUA East division, setting up an exciting regular season finale between the two teams on Saturday night.
York's Ishanaa Seupersadsingh led all players with a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds, with Courtney Osborne adding 10 points in the loss.
Source: Toronto Varsity Blues
Waterloo 50 @ Windsor 79
Windsor, ON – Led by Cheyanne Roger, the Lancer women's basketball team dominated the visiting Waterloo Warriors 79-50 Wednesday night at the St. Denis Centre.
With the win, the Lancers (18-1) hold a one game lead over the Laurier Golden Hawks (17-2) for first place in the west division. The Hawks and Lancers face off in the final game of the regular season Saturday afternoon in Waterloo. Winner of the game will secure first place in the division, as the Lancers lone loss on the year came at the hands of the Golden Hawks.
Roger led the Blue & Gold with a season high 28 points on 10-for-14 shooting from the field, while registering 9 rebounds. Andrea Kiss had the game's only double-double with 13 points and 15 rebounds, while captain Korissa Williams finished the game with 18 points and 6 rebounds.
Waterloo's Madison Behr led the visiting squad with 12 points, while Amy Jarvis had 11 points in the losing effort.
Windsor dominated the game from the opening tip building a 19-7 lead after the first ten minutes of play en route to a 47-23 halftime lead. Waterloo seemed to find their grove in the second half as they played a close game against the top ranked Lancers, but were unable to hold off the strong Lancer offence.
Prior to the game, the Lancers honoured their three graduating seniors Kristine Lalonde, Jocelyn LaRocque, and Williams in a pre-game ceremony.
Saturday's regular season finale cane be seen live at www.oua.tv starting at 1:00pm.
Souce: Windsor Lancers
Laurier 55 @ Western 76
LONDON, Ont. - For three quarters, the Western Mustangs women's basketball team stuck with the CIS number six ranked Laurier Golden Hawks, but couldn't break away with a strong lead as they fell 76-55 in the final home game of the regular season on Wednesday night at Alumni Hall.
Though spirits were still high following the game as the team honoured fourth year guard Caroline Wolynski on Senior Day. The team's only senior, Wolynski was presented with flowers and video montage of her accomplishments on the team. This season, Wolynski has averaged 12.3 points per game and has been a nuisance to opposing teams with 41 steals. Head coach Brian Cheng credits Wolynski's hard work and tenacity for her success and finesse on the court.
"She leaves it on the line," he said. "The difference between a good player and a great player is consistency. And we know with Woly that she's going to lay it all on the line every night with heart, passion, energy, and determination."
Wolynski was once again in the pool of top scorers with 12 points on the night. Overall, Mackenzie Puklicz lead the Mustang with 15 points, and Maddy Horst chipped in 10. Victoria Heine led the team in rebounds with 12, which complemented her 9 point offensive effort. Whitney Ellenor led the Laurier offence with 25 points, while Nicole Morrison added 23.
The loss puts Western's record at 6-13, good for third place in the OUA West Division. Laurier improves to 17-2 and remains in the second spot in the West.
Laurier's defence was relentless from the start, as they forced three shot clock violations on the Mustangs early in the game. Any opportunity to put a shot up around the key was quickly met with double teams and massive blocks from the long reach of Whitney Ellenor. But the Stangs soon adapted, by driving the ball in and kicking it back out to players hovering around the perimeter. This strategy led to successive scoring culminating with a Meredith McLeod 3-pointer that put the Mustangs within one point of the lead at the end of the quarter.
The Mustangs shot 44.8% in the first half - over 10% better than the Golden Hawks whose shots didn't seem to fall. The purple and white capitalized on these missed shots and turnovers to rile the crowd up and put up a 33-28 lead at the half.
Things changed, though, at the end of the third quarter and extending into the fourth when the Golden Hawks laid it on offensively by going on a 14-2 run, to change their status from down six points to lead by six. From there, the Stangs had trouble grabbing rebounds and getting through the rejuvenated Golden Hawk defence. For the fourth quarter, the Mustangs were out-scored 29-8, and Laurier's run down the stretch helped them walk away from this match with a 76-55.
Despite the tough loss, Coach Cheng was impressed with his team's ability to take easy looks and transitions away from their opponents, but was hoping for a stronger effort on the defensive rebound.
"Man to man or zone, wherever our defence was Laurier was still getting the rebounds," he said. "If we can shut that off, that's what gets us to the next level. We need to get the defensive rebound and have focus for forty minutes. We had that focus tonight, it just wasn't unified."
Wolynski, too, was happy with her team's effort and notes that it was an apt way to commemorate her final home game in a Mustang uniform.
"It's obviously a bit sad but it was a good game to end off with," she said. "They're number six in the country and we stayed with them for three quarters. It was a good game for us and I'm really proud of us. It was nice to have that as the last game we play at home."
Wolynski and the rest of the Mustangs will play their final game of the regular season on the road at Waterloo this Saturday. The match tips off at 1 p.m. and can be watched live on OUA.tv.
Source: Western Mustangs
Brock 55 @ McMaster 70
Again playing with a short-handed line-up as some injured players recuperate, the McMaster women's basketball team was able to defeat Central Division rival Brock 70-55 on Wednesday night in the Burridge Gym.
With only eight players in uniform, McMaster opened the game with a flourish and grabbed a 7-3 lead before Brock battled back to go in front 10-9. Marauder Danielle Boiago keyed a late run and after 10 minutes, the Maroon had retaken the lead at 16-11.
Play in the second quarter see-sawed between the two teams before a late trey from Boiago allowed the Marauders to take a 36-30 advantage into the halftime break. Boiago was the offensive story, scoring 16 points over the first 20 minutes.
The third quarter saw McMaster push the lead into double digits as a Rachael Holmes basket put her team up 41-30. But the Badgers kept battling and got the deficit down to 45-40, as post player Kira Cornelissen started to score inside against the Marauders. McMaster had a response though and closed the quarter on a 10-3 run to take a 55-43 lead into the final stanza.
Needing a win to clinch a playoff spot, Brock tried to reduce the deficit but could only get as close as 59-50 after a three-point goal from Melissa Tatti. The Marauders then scored the next six points to get the lead back up to 15 and the Badgers had no answer as time ran out.
Boiago finished with a game-high 22 points and was also the leading rebounder with 14 boards. Rachel Holmes scored 13, Hilary Hanaka had 10, and Lexie Spadafora had another big game off the bench with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Cornelissen led the Badgers with 19.
The Marauder win leaves the playoff door slightly ajar for the Guelph Gryphons, who can catch Brock for the final playoff spot by sweeping Lakehead in their upcoming two-game weekend series.
The Marauders will close out the OUA conference schedule on Saturday, February 21st vs. the Algoma University Thunderbirds. It is also Senior's Day as both McMaster teams will honour their graduating players. Game time on Saturday is at 12 p.m.
Source: McMaster Marauders
