Gryphons beat Brock 69-51 for first playoff win in eight years

GUELPH, ON – Not a single player on the current roster for the U of G women's basketball team had yet to start high school the last time that a Gryphons women's basketball team won an OUA playoff game.

After Wednesday night, the current squad made sure to put an end to that postseason drought. The Gryphons won 69-51 over the Brock Badgers Wednesday night at the W.F. Mitchell Centre in a Preliminary Round matchup of the 2016 OUA Playoffs. The victory marked the Gryphons first postseason win since 2007. With the win, the Gryphons now advance to the OUA Quarterfinals and will travel to the nation's capital on Saturday (March 5) to face the OUA's top-seeded Ottawa Gee-Gees.
 
"This was probably our greatest team effort of the entire season" said Gryphons third year head coach Christin Dickenson. "The support tonight from our fellow student-athletes and fans was unbelievable and we wanted to make sure that the last game here [W.F. Mitchell Centre] was a win." After serving as the home court of the Gryphons for nearly 60 years, Wednesday night's game marked the final varsity basketball game ever to be played at the W.F. Mitchell Athletics Centre with both the women's and men's basketball teams set to move into the New Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre for the 2016-17 season.
 
A tightly contested opening half on Wednesday night saw the Gryphons and Badgers separated by just one point at halftime as the Gryphons took a 33-32 lead to the locker room at the break. Fifth year senior Dana Van Balkom led the way for the Gryphs with 13 of her 16 points on the night coming in the opening half.  In the second half, the Gryphons would put on a clinic on the defensive end, holding the Badgers to a total of just 6 points in the third quarter. "Their post players did some damage in the opening half, but in the third, Kate [MacTavish] and Vanessa [Rampado] made it very difficult for them to get entry into the post and our defensive play on the perimeter by our guards was terrific all night" said Dickenson. After allowing Brock to score 21 points in the first quarter, the Gryphons held the visitors to just 19 points the entire second half.
 
Leading the way for the Gryphons at the offensive end in the second half was second year point guard Bridget Atkinson. The reigning CIS Rookie of the Year scored 15 of her team-high 19 points in the second half while also picking up 5 assists on the night. With just over eight minutes to go in the third quarter, a Barbara Inrig-Pieterse three pointer was quickly followed by an Atkinson bucket pushing the Gryphons lead to 13. They would lead by as many as 18 on the night and cruised to a 69-51 victory. As a team, the Gryphons set a season-high from beyond the arc by hitting 7 three pointers on what was also a season-best 46.7% (7-of-15) from downtown. As a team, the Gryphons shot 40.9% from the field (27-66). It was the most efficient field goal percentage the team had recorded since they shot 42% in a blowout win over Laurentian back in November.
 
Fifth year forward Kate MacTavish finished with 12 points and 13 rebounds while Quincy Sickles-Jarvis provided a spark off the bench with 9 points and 6 rebounds. Sickles-Jarvis also connected on a three pointer for the third consecutive game. Prior to that, the second year post player had only attempted one three pointer the entire season – a miss at York. In the team's last three games, Sickles-Jarvis is a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc.
 
The Gryphons limited the Badgers to just 18-66 from the field (27%) and 1-14 from three point territory (7%). For the Gryphons, it was their second victory in the past five days over their division rivals as the two teams had also squared off in the regular season finale last Saturday (Feb. 27).
 
The Gryphons will now shift their focus to the Ottawa Gee-Gees, who are the No. 1-seed in the OUA playoffs and the No. 6-ranked team in the country after posting a 17-2 record during the regular season. The Gryphons played Ottawa tough during their lone regular season matchup, losing 72-69 at home back on November 14. Game time for the Guelph-Ottawa OUA Quarterfinal match on Saturday is set for 6pm and can be seen live online at www.oua.tv

Source: Guelph Gryphons