Natsuki Szczokin records six steals in back-to-back games
On Saturday, the women’s basketball team travelled to the Nipissing Laker’s home court, where they started with a rough patch, allowing Nipissing an eight-point lead. The Gees were coming off a 74-52 win at Laurentian the night before.
With a slow start on the Ottawa side and a lack of points early in the first quarter, to any watcher, it would seem the Gee-Gees had lost their energetic form.
However, 2024 OUA All-Rookie Victoria Brideau jump-started Ottawa’s slow scoring attempt with two free throws. The Lakers gained another two points while the garnet and grey seemed to be stuck with six points in their favour.
However, the hope that the Lakers had did not last long, as Brideau resurfaced again to change the scoreboard in their favour and then secured it with a jump shot a few minutes later. Despite a late start on the Gee-Gees side, the team still managed to almost double the points to their rival by the last two minutes of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Lakers needed to respond. They tried with honest effort, yet the Gee-Gees were starting to leave them behind, with at least 13 points between each team.
The second quarter served as a platform for Natsuki Szczokin to show off her skills and dribble past the Nipissing team, providing endless opportunities for the garnet and grey to score. With the scoreboard reading 42-26, both teams had completely different sentiments at halftime and a completely different experience on the court.
In the third quarter, Ottawa played mainly by themselves, obtaining 32 points against Nipissing’s 13, securing the lead and setting the team up for an absolute win. The second half of the game was nothing more than Ottawa proving they are still in the race for the playoffs, and making sure everyone knows it, with Allie McCarthy scoring a trio of three-pointers and Bailey Russell adding one to the total as well.
In the fourth and final quarter, the Gee-Gees closed out the game cruising for the win, finishing with a 40 point difference in what can only be described as an absolute dominant second half of the game. The Ottawa team went from starting slow and making us all question where they are, to securing their presence on the court, in our mind, and in the next game they have.
The Gee-Gees will now welcome both Nipissing (Friday, 6 p.m.) and Laurentian (Saturday, 3 p.m.) to Montpetit this weekend.
