Gaels top Voyageurs 70-44, advance to OUA quarter-final at McMaster Saturday

KINGSTON, Ont. (March 2, 2016)- Jenny Wright tallied a game-high 15 points in the final home game of her career, pacing the Queen's Gaels to a 70-44 triumph over the Laurentian Voyageurs in the first round of the OUA playoffs at the Athletics and Recreation Centre (ARC) on Wednesday evening.
 
Playing in her last-ever game at the ARC, Wright shot 4-of-12 from the floor and was just a rebound shy of a double-double, pulling down nine boards while adding three steals, two assists, and a block for the Gaels.
 
Emily Hazlett added 14 points, and Andrea Priamo (Guelph, Ont.) picked up 12 points and 11 rebounds for a double-double. Robyn Pearson (Toronto) tallied a game-high 15 rebounds to go with eight points, while Adrienne Moreau tallied 15 points and nine rebounds in a losing cause for the Voyageurs.
 
The Gaels have now won their opening playoff match-up in each of the last four years, with the last two of those victories coming against Laurentian. Queen's topped the Voyageurs 80-52 to open the 2014-15 playoffs last February.
 
Queen's advances to take on the CIS No. 8 ranked McMaster Marauders in the OUA quarter-finals on Saturday.
 
GAME FLOW
The Gaels started the contest by hitting three of their first four shots, but both offenses quieted through the next five minutes of the first quarter. The guests turned the ball over five times within the first half of the period, while the Gaels struggled with their perimeter game, missing their first five attempts from beyond the arc. A struggling Voyageurs offense that made just three shots in the first quarter combined with the host's first three of the game, a buzzer-beater by Hazlett (Fredericton, N.B.), gave the women a 10-point lead at the end of one.
 
After the Gaels extended the lead to 15 early in the second, Laurentian went on a 7-0 run to bring the lead back down to single-digits. Moreau hit a three, which was followed by a Queen's turnover and two more points in transition, prompting a timeout from Queen's Coach Dave Wilson with 5:23 left in the half. Moreau drained her second jumper in a row for three coming out of the Gael break.
 
Hazlett and Moreau then exchanged baskets, and the fifth-year Voyageur dropped her third three of the quarter with just over a minute remaining, cutting the once 15-point deficit to just two. Queen's added four points in the last minute of play to take a 29-23 lead into the halftime break.
 
Hazlett had seven points at the half, while Moreau led all players with 11.
 
The Voyageurs went on a mini-streak midway through the third quarter to again pull within a jump shot of evening the match. Laurentian looked as if it would tie the game following an Emily Tinnes three-point play Gael miss, but Moreau missed an open lay-up, and the momentum quickly swung the other way after Hazlett nailed a corner three.
 
Abby Dixon (Vancouver, B.C.) dropped a mid-range baseline jumper, and another basket from beyond the arc by Wright (Kingston) capped a 12-2 run, spreading the Gael lead back up to 10. They maintained an eight-point lead through three quarters of play.
 
The Gaels opened the final period with numerous trips to the foul line early on, and Wright's jumper from the top of the key just over three minutes into the fourth represented the first field goal of the quarter. Laurentian continued to struggle offensively in the final 10 minutes, not picking up their first points until the 3:16 mark of the period, while the Queen's offense steadily put the game out of reach throughout the fourth.  
 
FINAL SAY
"I'm more pleased with how we finished the game than how we played in the first half," said Wilson. "The first half we were careless and a bit sloppy. I'd like to say we came out in the third quarter and did what we wanted to do but we didn't really get to them until later in the game when they got tired and a little bit exposed."
 
On playing McMaster on Sunday
"McMaster is a great team. We caught them a bit off guard when we played them last time by throwing some things at them they haven't seen before. We won't have that element of surprise this time, and there will be a little bit of fatigue involved so it is going to take a lot from us to be able to pull that one out."  
 
BY THE NUMBERS
60- The Gaels out-rebounded Laurentian 60-36, 23 of which came on the offensive glass
4- Queen's held Laurentian to single-digits in two of the four quarters, including just four points scored in the fourth
15- The Voyageurs were a perfect 15-of-15 from the free-throw line
 
UP NEXT
The Gaels travel to McMaster on Saturday afternoon to take on the fourth-seeded Marauders in the OUA quarter-finals. Tip-off is set for 4:00 p.m.
 
The winner of that match books a ticket to the OUA Final Four Weekend to do battle for the Critelli Cup.

Source: Queen's Gaels