The women’s basketball team remains in sole possession of second place after two wins in Ottawa this weekend. The Gaels defeated the Ottawa Gee-Gees 50-45 on Friday and the Carleton Ravens 68-54 on Saturday. The Gaels are just two points ahead of third-place Laurentian.
Sporting a 2-10 record this season, Ottawa is the fifth-place team in the East Division. Though the Gaels opened well, they were unable to keep up their level of play in the second quarter, head coach Dave Wilson said.
“The second quarter was kind of the opposite of the first. We got a little bit cold, a little bit sloppy.”
Queen’s allowed a total of 14 turnovers in the first half, which gave the Gee-Gees an opening. Wilson said that towards the end of the third quarter, his bench players came on and played well for the eam, helping to regain the momentum for Queen’s. With only six minutes left in the game, Queen’s was up by 14, but Ottawa tried to stage a comeback.
The Gee-Gees came within five points of Queen’s before the end of the game. “Turnovers weren’t the big issue. Defensive breakdowns were,” Wilson said. “We were fortunate that Ottawa did not shoot the ball from the perimeter well.
“Basically it was not a well-played game on either side of the ball.” In their next game, Wilson said Queen’s was up against a young Carleton team, and was strong from the get-go.
“We dominated them right off the bat and opened up a very good lead,” he said. “We had a 10-point head pretty quickly, and [Carleton’s coach] had to call an early timeout.”
Queen’s slowed down in the second quarter. “We had quite the lapse where we had a loss of concentration,” Wilson said. “It allowed [Carleton] to get right back into the ball game.”
Again, Queen’s came out strong in the second half, and was able to put together a good third quarter to retake the momentum.
“We opened the third quarter very well and basically put away the game in the third quarter,” Wilson said. “We got back to being sharp and communicating with each other effectively.”
“He said his team improved their offensive game in the second half.
“We did a better job of keep spacing on the floor, allowing us better looks at the hoop,” he added.
Wilson said that, statistically, it’s still possible for Queen’s to take first place, but it’s unlikely to happen.
“Second place will be tough to hang on to,” he said. “We have a very tough road ahead.”
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