Our first road trip of the season saw us finish 1-2 in the Bishop's Invitational Tournament. We have made significant improvements since our RMC outing, but with lots of things to work on as well. I am generally quite pleased with the direction this team is going -- should make for an interesting season.
Q’s 74 vs. Bishop’s 64
Our first game in almost a month and it showed. Bishop’s lit us up early and often – we looked like deer in headlights and were down 12-4. But that was only the first 5 minutes. Then we began to settle down and find our rhythm finishing the quarter on a 10-3 run. The pace of the game was very fast – not something from which we will shy away. Having 11 players in our line up (more than all last year) allows us to go 11 deep. We outscored Bishop’s 18-14 in the second quarter to go into half time with a 3 point lead, 32-29. Our shooting stats were mediocre to poor, but our rebounding (including our offensive rebounding) was solid. We continued to improve through the second, making better shot selections (primarily due to better offensive movement), consequently improving our shooting percentages. We outscored Bishop’s 20-15 in the third and 22-20 in fourth to finish with a 74-64 win.
Brittany Moore led the way with 24 points, including a perfect 11 for 11 from the foul line. Paige Robinson had an excellent all round game with 19 points and a Player of the Game selection. Liz Boag continued her solid play with 14 points, 3 assists and 8 rebounds.
Q’s 62 vs. Montreal Dynamo 67
We played this Senior Women’s team last year and were schooled – a very talented, savvy group of ex-CIS All-Stars, All-Canadians and National team members. We came out, however, with what I will call attitude. Something oppositions are generally not pleased to face, but as a coach, it reminded me of some earlier Q’s teams that were very successful! We finished the first quarter with a 21-19 lead, thanks to some very good perimeter shooting and aggressive defence that led to many turnovers. The second quarter was not quite as quick as the first, but still as intense. We outscored the Dynamo 18-13 to lead 39-32 at the half. Our scoring dropped significantly in the second half, primarily due to the Dynamo changing to a zone defense for the entire half. While we have instituted a zone offense in practise, we have spent little time on it and the reads required to exploit the defense. Moving forward, our zone attack will develop and improve greatly. We were outscored 18-9 in the third and 17-14 in the fourth to finish down, 67-62. Four players however, finished in double figures with Hanna Koposhynska leading the way with 12 (along with 5 boards). Jenny Wright (4 assists, 6 boards), Lisa Minutillo (6 boards), and Rachael Urosevic each had 10 points, with Minutillo being named Player of the Game.
Q’s 62 vs. Toronto 69
The intensity and focus of the previous game was sadly lacking as U of T controlled the tempo and flow of the game from the opening tip. Playing in a tentative and reactive mode left us trailing 18-11 after one quarter, and 38-22 at the half. We did open the third quarter with a much more spirited effort to close to within 7, before slipping back to a 14 point spread at the end of the third. We continued to battle, however, closing to within 5 with 2 minutes to go. The final ended up 7, at 69-62. Jenny Wright and Lisa Minutillo each had 14 points (Wright named Player of the Game), while Hanna Koposhynska added 10 points and 6 boards, and was named to the Tournament All-Star Team.
We accomplished many things in the tournament, not the least of which is the identification of the areas needing improvement.
Up Next at Home:
Tindall Tournament
6:00pm Queen’s vs. Dalhousie
8:00pm Guelph vs. UQAM
Saturday, October 22
6:00pm Queen’s vs. Guelph
8:00pm UQAM vs. Dalhousie
Sunday, October 23
12:00n Dalhousie vs. Guelph
2:00pm Queen’s vs. UQAM
Have a great week.
Dave.
