Thousands packed TD Place to witness the high-scoring affair
Keeping your composure in front of thousands of screaming students isn’t an easy task. Both the Carleton Ravens and the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees women’s basketball teams found that out the hard way on Feb. 2 at TD Place.
The Gees started off hot. First, point guard Ariane Saumure sank a three, followed shortly by her backcourt partner Natsuki Szczokin. And then it was Saumure once again, and the Gee-Gees had stormed out to an early lead.
Holding a 49-37 lead coming out of halftime thanks to Saumure and Szczokin, the Gees would manage just 23 points the rest of the way. The Ravens’ poor field-goal shooting from the first half didn’t last, and suddenly it was the Gee-Gees, not the Ravens, who couldn’t seem to make a layup.
The offence unsurprisingly ran through the pair the entire game, but their shooting touch dried up in the second half. After holding a solid lead for most of the game, the Gee-Gees would ultimately fail to close it out when the going got tough and the fans got loud; the Ravens would take the game 78-72.
“We lost focus, we were starting to get tired, and we were starting to lose focus,” Gees coach Rose-Anne Joly said after the game. “The thing is, in the first half, offence is in front of our bench and I’m a coach who talks a lot — so I was able to coordinate what we were doing on the offensive side.”
With the Gee-Gees struggling to make shots in the second half and the Ravens surging as more fans started pouring into the arena, the momentum was tilted. Joly also mentioned leadership as an issue from the game.
“We have trouble with leadership on the floor. When we’re in a big arena — I don’t know if there was 10,000 people at the end of the game, [or how many] — but when I can’t really communicate with my athletes, I need to see them show leadership, and there was a lack of leadership in the second half.”
The Ravens, however, made changes on the fly to counter the Gees defensive strategy for star guard Kali Pocrnic. The Gees were sitting on Pocrnic’s side the entire game, forcing her to drive to the paint where 6’2” Emily Payne stood.
Ravens head coach Dani Sinclair talked post-game about the strategy. “They do a great job of that. But they did that to us last time we played them. That’s part of where the frustration was [in the first half], we were trying to get them to not do that as much.
Pocrnic would have a much better second half and would finish the game with 19 points and nine assists. “Kali has an ability to get by people, but when you’re then facing 6’2” at the rim, probably not the best idea,” Sinclair continued.
So we just talked [at halftime] about trying to get multiple attacks, but the flipside of that is we don’t want to get the ball out of our best player’s hands too much. So it was trying to find that balance, and I think when the game broke open offensively was when a couple other people hit some shots.”
Szczokin shot just 2-of-11 in the second half, and Saumure didn’t have much better luck, at 2-of-8, as fatigue set in. Although they combined for 43 points, it came on a costly 43 shots. First-year Gee Allie McCarthy was more efficient, finishing with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
The Ravens set the all-time women’s record for scoring in a Capital Hoops regulation game, edging out the 77 the U of O scored in 2022. The teams fell two points short of the combined highest score, set in the same year.
With the loss, the Gee’s record moves to 14-4, and the Ravens to 17-1. The Gees will welcome TMU and U of T to Montpetit next weekend, and close out their schedule with a trip to Queen’s and Ontario Tech the following weekend.
