Hi Folks,
League play opened this past weekend with us on the road at
York on Friday and Guelph on Saturday.
We came into league play ranked 7th in the country, and came
away with two wins.
Queen’s 85 – York 54
We opened the scoring in this game and never relinquished
the lead, although York was very solid in the opening quarter. We finished the quarter up 18-15 on the
difference of shooting percentage: 39% to 26% -- neither of which are
impressive numbers. It was the second
quarter where our pressure defense began to force York into more errors,
leading to runouts. We outscored York
25-12 to take a 43-27 half time lead. We
opened the third quarter the same way we finished the second, blowing the game
wide open. On the back of our defence
work, and runouts, we outscored York 24-13 in the quarter. With the game out of reach, I thought we
still stayed quite focused in the fourth, not allowing York to gain any
momentum. We scored 18 to York’s 14 to
finish with the 85-54 win. Both our
scoring and rebounding were spread amongst our 12 active players – despite
scoring 85 points our leading scorer only had 14, and despite out-rebounding
York 52-31, our leading rebounder had 9.
Kat Holt and Marianna Alarie led the way in scoring
with 14 points apiece, while Robyn
Pearson was 1 rebound away from a double-double, with 12 points and 9
boards.
Queen’s 63 – Guelph 47
This was a very different style of game, as Guelph did a
very good job of slowing the pace and bogging down our interior play. It was also a game of short runs, 6 or 8
points in a row by us, followed by 6 or 8 by Guelph. Once again, we scored first in the game and
never relinquished the lead. However,
both teams also had difficulty with shooting accuracy. We had our mini-run to go up 12-5, only to
have Guelph score the final 6 points of the quarter – we led 12-11 after one,
shooting only 28%. We got untracked a
little more in the second quarter, again our defense forcing a number of
turnovers. Our shooting % climbed to
38%, still well below our targets, but allowed us to outscore Guelph 19-16 and
hold a 31-27 half time lead. The
mini-runs continued in the third quarter, with us going on an 8 point run to
grab a double-digit lead, only to have Guelph come back with a 6 point run of
their own. We finished the quarter with
a short 4 point run to outscore Guelph 16-11 in the third. Neither team could find the bottom of the net
for the early going in the fourth. The
spread was only 8 with 2 minutes to go in the quarter. However, our best execution of the day came
in those last 2 minutes, finishing with a 10-2 run to outscore Guelph 16-9 to
finish with the 63-47 win. Our shooting
% from the floor was quite dismal (29.6%), but we did have a bright spot from
the foul line, going 15 for 18 (83.3%). Robyn Pearson, despite a very slow
start to the game, finished with an impressive double-double, 16 points and 13
rebounds. Emily Hazlett (who had a terrific weekend running our offenses and
creating enormous problems for the opposition’s point guards) finished with 12
points on 4 of 9 from the floor and 4 of 4 from the line. Veronika
Lavergne, like Robyn, was able to overcome some of Guelph’s physical play
to finish with 10 points.
Numbers continue to climb for our annual ID/Training Camp in early December
(Sunday the 4th). It will involve
on-court sessions with the Q’s coaching staff from 9:30-11:45am and again
1:30-3:30pm, along with a facility tour and Q&A session in between. It is intended for student athletes in Grades
10-12 who may have an interest in Queen’s down the road. There is no cost for the Training Camp, but
please drop me an email if you would like to attend, so I can prepare for the
numbers.
Up Next at Home:
Friday, November 18 vs. Laurier 6pm
Saturday, November 19 vs. Waterloo 2pm (note
afternoon time)
Up Next on the Road:
Friday, November 25 @ Lakehead 6pm
Have a great week.
Dave.
