THE GEES’ FIRST HALF WAS MUCH UNLIKE THE SECOND, STARTING OUT EVEN STRENGTH BUT UNABLE TO POWER THROUGH
The Gee-Gees women’s squad has suffered its fifth consecutive Capital Hoops loss to the Carleton Ravens in a blowout second half. Trailing by just one point at the half, both teams seemed to be neck-and-neck. Unfortunately, the tides changed quickly in the third quarter as the Gees were outscored 29-10. In front of a packed TD Place arena, they finished things off with a final score of 87-60.
Looking to break their Capital Hoops losing streak, the Gee-Gees came into the game as underdogs, three wins behind the Ravens. It was a game of offence versus defence as the second-highest OUA scoring Gees had to battle against the OUA’s best defensive Ravens.
Enora Touloute started the scoring for the Gees with a routine layup, but they found themselves down 13-2 in the first four minutes. The dynamic duo started getting hot with three buckets from Allie McCarthy and a triple from Bailey Russell, giving the Gees some motion. On the Gees’ final play of the first quarter, Russell hit a nasty step-back three to reduce their deficit to one.
It was back and forth between the two teams in the second quarter, finishing it off close with the Ravens leading 39-38. The Gees were doing well on the boards thus far, and exceeded expectations on defence with several clutch steals and fast break transition buckets.
The Ravens star Kyana-Jade Poulin was helping them pull away from the Gees, leading on both ends to give them a 20-point lead going into the final quarter.
Unable to swing things around in the final quarter, the Gees had shot just 26.3% from the field, and were out-rebounded by double to the Ravens.
The dynamic duo of McCarthy and Russell only heated up on the one end with McCarthy’s 25 points, whereas Russell struggled through the mass amount of Ravens pressure shooting just 4-20 from the field.
Head coach Rose-Anne Joly’s input was that “Allie still had a very good offensive game, but it was tough to give touches to Bailey because Carleton was putting so much pressure that it was taking us outside of our offensive structure.”
Coach Joly acknowledged that the team “offered a great show, but still allowed 39 points after half, which is not something [they]want to do… Carleton really pushed that tempo in the second half.”
Despite the Gee’s loss, they still remain a strong team despite their lack of depth. Coach Joly is confident in her team’s ability on both sides of the court going forward, saying, “I strongly believe in my team, and I think we have to remind them that we’re OUA champions… We have two of the best scorers in the country.”
Just two regular-season games remain after their recent loss, 74-61 to the Brock Badgers. The games are to be played against Nipissing and Laurentian next weekend, thankfully, a light schedule leading into the playoffs for the Critelli Cup, hopefully the Gees can bring it home once again!
