The Queen’s women’s basketball team put their fate in someone else’s hands after they split their
home games on the weekend. The Gaels beat the Carleton Ravens 58-54 on Friday but lost 56-53 to Ottawa on Saturday. The loss to Ottawa puts Queen’s two points out of second place.
In order for the Gaels to finish in second place and earn a bye through the first round of the playoffs, not only will they have to beat the Royal Military College on the road tomorrow, but they also have to count on York to defeat Laurentian.
Friday’s game against the Ravens was tight, with the Gaels leading by only one point after the first quarter. Guard Sarah Barnes had 10 points in the quarter alone. The Gaels had a shaky start to
the second, and the Ravens pushed ahead to take the lead. Queen’s bounced back, and at halftime, the Gaels again held a one-point advantage, leading 27-26.
Queen’s had a strong third quarter with great rebounding at both ends of the court, but the team couldn’t break away from the Ravens, adding only one point to their lead.
The fourth quarter started well with the Gaels capitalizing on the Ravens’ turnovers. The last five
minutes were an end-to-end affair, with both teams trading leads. Barnes secured the win with an
easy basket with 17 seconds left on the clock. Both Claire Meadows and Barnes finished with a
game-leading 22 points each. Barnes also grabbed 10 rebounds, giving her a double-double.
Guard Jessica Selinger said that, going into this game, the players knew they had to be tough
on defence. “We knew we had to focus on taking away their drives because they get a lot of points from their guards,” Selinger said.
Saturday night, the Gaels lost to the Ottawa Gee-Gees. They had a slow start to the game where they were outscored 18-8 in the first quarter.
Selinger said the team just needed to regroup. “We needed mental focus. We knew we could stop them,” she said. “We just needed to come together as a team.”
They had a much better second quarter, outscoring the Gee-Gees 19-14, but still trailed 32-27 at
the half. The second quarter was played evenly, with both teams shooting well and driving to the basket. Ottawa still led with one minute left, but Selinger made a layup to bring the Gaels within two. After timeouts and foul calls slowed the last 10 seconds, Ottawa pulled out a 56-53 win. Selinger had a game high 16 points, and Meadows contributed 13. Their last game of the regular season will be against RMC tomorrow. Selinger said they will prepare as usual in practice.
“We need to try and maintain our sharpness and focus. We will work on our offence and really come together as a team.”
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be ed, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to [email protected].