AROUND OUA: No. 10 ranked Gee-Gees sneak past Varsity Blues 69-62
The University of Toronto Varsity Blues women's basketball team dropped a 69-62 decision to the No. 10 nationally ranked Ottawa Gee-Gees in their ninth annual Think Pink, Bleed Blue game on Friday night (Jan. 22) at Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport.
SCOREBOARD
No. 10 ranked Gee-Gees sneak past Varsity Blues 69-62
The University of Toronto Varsity Blues women's basketball team dropped a 69-62 decision to the No. 10 nationally ranked Ottawa Gee-Gees in their ninth annual Think Pink, Bleed Blue game on Friday night (Jan. 22) at Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport.
With the loss, the Blues drop to 3-6 and remain in third place in the OUA East division, while the Gee-Gees improve to 8-1 and stay atop the North division.
Third-year guard Rahshida Atkinson led all players with 15 points, while adding three rebounds, three assists and two steals on the night.
Fellow third-year Varsity Blues Diedre Edwards added 12 points, five rebounds two assists and two steals, while rookie Mahal De La Durantaye notched eight points, four rebounds and a team-high four steals.
Team co-captains Alanna Garner and Abena Addo recorded six and seven points, respectively, in the loss.
Trailing 9-4 in the early goings, Keyira Parkes rallied the troops with a three-pointer and the Blues evened the game at 9-9. Toronto kept pace, highlighted by another three from Maddy Baker and trailed Ottawa 18-17 after the first quarter. Edwards paced Toronto with eight points through the second quarter and U of T took a 36-34 lead into halftime.
Atkinson nailed two three-pointers and a jumper to spark a 10-0 run to open the second half. The Gee-Gees rallied and brought the game within one (50-49), but Atkinson nailed her third three-pointer of the night at the buzzer to give U of T a 53-49 advantage heading into the final frame.
Ottawa completed the comeback, outscoring Toronto 20-9 in the fourth quarter en route to victory.
Kellie Ring led the Gee-Gees with 13 points and a game-high seven rebounds, while Julia Dostaler had 12 points and Katherine Lemoine had 11 points in the win.
The Varsity Blues are back in action tomorrow night as they host the Carleton Ravens at Goldring Centre Tip off is set for 6 p.m.
GAME NOTES: The Junior Blues gymnastics club raised over $700 and performed a Think Pink routine at halftime...Varsity Blues men's basketball players and Think Pink champions Manny Sahota and Devon Williams honoured Mrs. Williams as a breast cancer survivor...Varsity Blues football player and Think Pink champion Kevin Collins raised $1000 and cut his hair in support of the campaign.
Source: Toronto Varsity Blues
Tiemens' perfect night leads Rams over Ravens
TORONTO – The Ryerson Rams women's basketball team broke down a solid Carleton Ravens team defence on Friday night to earn an 88-53 victory at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
BOXSCORE
The Ravens entered Friday night's game with the second best defence in the league, averaging just 54.8 points against per game. The Rams inflated those numbers with a big 88 point performance.
Sophomore point guard Cara Tiemens (Newmarket, Ont.) had a career night with 19 points going 6-for-6 from the floor including 4-of-4 from three-point territory. Rams leading scorer Keneca Pingue-Giles (Winnipeg, Man.) also added 19 points in the win.
The word 'special' was really the only way for coach Carly Clarke to describe Tiemens' performance on Friday.
"Her grandfather died on Sunday; she spoke at the funeral yesterday, she missed practice a bunch of days this week and then put up that performance. (It was) just special. She came with another energy…and had a great performance. Great for her confidence and great for our team moving forward," said an emotional Clarke.
The Rams opened the contest with a strong first quarter which foreshadowed the outcome of the game. Ryerson led 27-15 after just ten minutes and executed their offence to near perfection.
Ryerson's lead was 43-33 at the half.
The third quarter has been a strong point for the Rams this season and Friday night was no different as the No. 4 team in the country put up another 29 points in the stanza to blow the game open and lead 72-46 after 30 minutes before rounding out the scoring for the 88-53 victory.
It wasn't just the offence that came to play on Friday as Ryerson forced Carleton into 23 turnovers and collected 15 steals. Another big factor was the Rams ability to shut down Carleton's Heather Lindsay. She entered Friday averaging 16.3 points per game and 9.9 rebounds per game but managed just four points and two rebounds Friday.
"As a team we had great defence on the perimeter which made her (Lindsay) touches challenging and then we did a good job of keeping her off the boards which is where she's usually very strong," added Clarke.
Ravens forward Lindsay Shotbolt was the team's leading scorer with 13 points and six rebounds.
The Rams improve to 7-2 on the season while Carleton drops to 5-4 on the year. Ryerson is back in action on Saturday night when they host the No. 10 ranked Ottawa Gee-Gees (8-1) for a 6:00 p.m. tipoff.
NOTES: With her 19 points on Friday, Keneca Pingue-Giles moved into fifth place on Ryerson's all-time scoring list. She now sits at 965 career points and is poised to become the fifth player to reach the 1,000 point plateau.
Source: Ryerson Rams
Lakers fall to hot shooting Hawks
Having played some of their best basketball the last few games, the Nipissing Lakers women's basketball team continued that trend Friday night.
That was the positive. The negative was the end result, as they fell 75-54 to a strong Laurier Golden Hawks team, who has won two of their past three.
It was the middle two quarters, which in the end, seemed to spoil the Lakers as they were outscored 43-27 in the second and third quarters, on their way to a tough defeat.
The first and fourth, the Lakers hung tough and played well.
In the first, Nipissing and Laurier traded baskets, with neither taking command of the game, although Laurier did open up a six point lead – their biggest of the quarter.
Nipissing clawed back and closed the gap near the end, finishing the opening 10 minutes down just down four, 14-10.
In the second, Laurier took control and Nipissing didn't have an immediate answer.
Thanks to some hot shooting earlier, the Hawks opened up a 22-15 lead, but the Lakers were able to close the gap and trailed by just one just past the midway point.
Laurier once again extended their lead and entered half-time up by 11 points.
In the third, already trailing, the Lakers allowed the game to slip away a little bit, as they were outscored 21-12 and headed to the fourth quarter down 57-37.
They fought hard to close the gap, but Laurier did just enough to match each basket and held on for the victory, sending Nipissing to their second straight loss.
Rachel Jaworowicz led the Lakers with 11 points, Alexe Galipeau-Wilson had nine and Mackenzie Bahm added eight in the loss.
Despite two solid efforts, the Lakers are 0-2 in 2016, but will look to right the ship Saturday night when they host the Waterloo Warriors, who claimed their first victory Friday night against Laurentian.
Game time is set for 6 p.m. at the RJS Athletic Centre.
Source: Nipissing Lakers
Warriors pick up first win of the season over Voyageurs
The Laurentian Voyageurs women's basketball team was back in action on Friday night, falling to the Waterloo Warriors 60-58. The win was the Warriors first on the season as they came in with a record of 0-9, while the with the loss the Voyageurs fall to a record of 3-6.
The game marked the return of the Voyageurs to the Ben Avery, where they hadn't played since before the winter break. However, it was the Warriors that came out strong in the first. Waterloo showed that they were better than their record, running out to an early lead on the Voyageurs.
The Voyageurs could not get any of their shots to fall in the first and found themselves trailing 13-0 at the end of the first. In the second quarter the Voyageurs found their shooting stroke. However, the Warriors were able to keep their distance from the Voyageurs and took a 25-15 lead into halftime. In the third quarter the Voyageurs continued to try and chip away at the lead, but at every turn the Warriors would answer.
A high scoring quarter ended with the Voyageurs still trailing by a 10 point margin. In the fourth the Voyageurs tried to come back but for the first half of the quarter the Warriors were able to keep their distance. A frantic late rally by the Voyageurs, led by Adrienne Moreau who scored 21 points, had the Voyageurs within two with the last shot.
The Voyageurs three point attempt clanked off the rim and they couldn't put back the rebound and fell by a score of 60-58. Moreau led the team with 21 points, 7 rebounds and 6 steals. L'Ashante Henry also added 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Voyageurs. The loss was a tough one for the Voyageurs, coming off a big win against their northern rivals Nipissing. With the loss the team falls to 3-6, but still hold a playoff spot thanks to Nipissing's loss on Friday night.
However, it is a very tight race and every game the team plays from here out will be crucial in the battle for the postseason and also seeding. The Voyageurs will look to get the taste of the loss out of their mouth right away with a game against the Laurier GoldenHawks tomorrow night.
The game tips off at 6pm so come out and support your Voyageurs!
Source: Laurentian Voyageurs
