Women's basketball Top 10 tracker: Huskies and Clan set to move up, other western dominance

  1. Simon Fraser: Two wins this week, as usual. The Clan took care of TRU in a rare Wednesday night game, one three-pointer away from doubling the WolfPack's score. There was more than a little annoyance detected in Kate Hole's blog post that mentioned the last-minute scheduling change two days of missed classes, but it appears that they took out their frustration in Kamloops. Last night, they beat UFV, but not without some uncertainty. Laurelle Weigl led the team with 23 points and was 11 for 19 from the floor. Hole was back on the court, by the way, for about eight minutes per game.
  2. Alberta: A big weekend for Alberta, and unfortunately for them they come away 0-2. Saskatchewan came to town. Friday night's game was close until the Huskies pulled away in the fourth, outscoring Alberta by six to win by seven. Saturday night, somewhat amazingly, the Pandas didn't even score in the third quarter as they lost by two. They shot 32% and 36% in the two games and were outrebounded 77-62 over the weekend.

    So as a result, the performance of the week for Alberta goes to Matt Gutsch who pulled out this simile in the U of A gamer: "Like a poorly-cooked frozen entree, the University of Alberta Pandas basketball team were hot on the ends but ice cold in the middle as they dropped their second straight decision to the University of Saskatchewan." Ten points to Mr. Gutsch for injecting some fire and ice into what are normally standard, boring recaps.
  3. Winnipeg: Honestly, for an Ontario boy, it's hard to keep track of all these Canada West basketball programs. Winnipeg played Manitoba and split the Thursday/Saturday home-and-home, losing 66-58 then winning 67-61. The Wesmen (really? Wesmen? It's 2008, Winnipeg) were 3-for-16 from beyond the arc in the first game and gave up 19 points in the fourth. Saturday was nicer to Winnipeg, as Caitlin Gooch and Alexandria MacIver picked up 23 and 20 points respectively as well as 10 boards each.
  4. Regina: There's no other way to say it: the Cougars are hot. 5-1 now after wins over UVic and UBC, both at home, and virtually tied with Winnipeg for first in their division. They scored 23 points in the fourth quarter in both games, but didn't really need that many against UBC on Saturday as they won 76-55 in what looks like a team effort. Friday was a little different, as their 23-9 margin in the fourth provided their entire winning margin and then some as UVic lost 63-52. Game ball goes to Carmen Stewart with a game score over 14 and a double-double among just two missed shots.
  5. Windsor: It's a little amazing that the University of Windsor is the only one of the top 7 east of Thunder Bay. They're also 5-1 and have scored more points than any other OUA team so far. The scores were 87-55 over Toronto and 83-53 over Ryerson this weekend, neither of which inspires much drama. (47-29 and 38-17 at the half, respectively.) Five different Lancers had a game score over 10 during the weekend, indicating impressive depth. They were also better from long-range this week, hitting 27% instead of 12%.
  6. Calgary: Had their way with Lethbridge, at home, winning both games. Last week it was Ashley Hill; this week, it was Whitney Haswell who performed best in both games. (Even then, Hill still had 22 points on Friday.) Alex Cole has also worked her way to the top of the Dinos--she had 18 points in 21 minutes in the first game, hitting 9 of 11 from the field.
  7. Saskatchewan: See above for a description of the weekend series with Alberta, which the Huskies swept. A last-second shot by Amy Prokop put Saskatchewan over the top 60-58 on Saturday, but she wasn't the only one to contribute to the win. Jana Spindler dominated both games and Kim Tulloch chipped in as well. Spindler grabbed 12 points and 11 boards in the first game and 17 and 9 in the second, shooting better than 50% both times.

    Another interesting note about the U of A/U of S series is both teams used all 12 players in both games. This doesn't happen often, to say the least. Then again you shouldn't trust what you see in CIS boxscores, because apparently Spindler, Tulloch, and Prokop each topped 60 minutes in Saturday's game.
  8. UQAM: Finally, the Quebec teams get started. The Citadins split their home-and-home, such as it was, with Concordia. The home team won both games. Standout players for UQAM include Irline Noel (8-14, 19 points, 14 rebounds on Friday; 7-15, 18, 9 on Saturday) and Karine Boudrais who picked up 23 points in 32 minutes on Saturday and found her way into the performers of the week (see below). I'd love to link you to a recap written by someone who was there, but the "news" section of the Stingers website hasn't been updated since February and the results aren't even listed on the Citadins' schedule page.
  9. Dalhousie: After the Tigers' 76-65 loss to Cape Breton on Saturday, Haligonian reporter Chad Lucas wrote, "Dal just doesn't look in sync yet. Injuries and illness have played a part in that too, though, and I don't think anyone on the Tigers is ready to panic. It will be interesting to see how they respond on Sunday against a St. F.X. team that's also playing really well right now." And how did they respond today? A nine-point win.
  10. Memorial: Probably in the Top 10 after sweeping Dal, the SeaHawks will stay after sweeping UPEI. Included in those two wins is a 23-point win last night in Charlottetown during which Memorial shot a ridiculous 56%. Proper respect to Victoria Thistle for her 22-point, 9-for-13 night on Saturday and Kelly Himmelman for her 32-point weekend.

Top performances of the week (explanation here):

MEN
29.1, Jacob Doerksen (Trinity Western, 11/12 at UFV)
27.5, Josh Whyte (UBC, 11/15/08 at Regina)
24.9, Kale Harrison (Laurier, 11/15 at Laurentian)
23.9, Brian Banman (Trinity Western, 11/15 at Thompson Rivers)
23.4, Sean Anthony (McGill, 11/14 vs. Bishop's)

WOMEN
25.3, Darrah Bumstead (Laurentian, 11/15 vs. Laurier)
21.4, Renata Adamczyk (Laurier, 11/14 at York)
18.9, Myra Donkin (UPEI, 11/15 vs. Memorial)
18.5, Victoria Thistle (Memorial, 11/15 at UPEI)
18.4, Karine Boudrias (UQAM, 11/15 at Concordia)
Next PostNewer Post Previous PostOlder Post Home

5 comments:

  1. Windsor, fifth ranked with a 5-1 record while Ottawa is unranked with a 4-1 record? Ottawa beat Windsor 62-60 on Windsor's court.

    OttawaFan

    ReplyDelete
  2. Disclaimer...this use of the Mitsubishi Top 10 does not imply any endorsement of the list or the processes behind it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was there are the Concordia/UQAM game (on saturday).

    It was a hard fought game on both sides. 8th seeded UQAM suffered a big blow the night before, losing by 11 at Loyola Campus AND losing one of their key players in Jessica Bibeau-Côté, who suffered a dislocated shoulder.

    The quarter by quarter boxscore is not accurate on the CIS website for saturday's game.

    Anyway, UQAM played tough defence in the first half of the game. Rookie Alix Vendal had 4 steals in the first 20 minutes of play. UQAM has a suffocating defence. They play an "in your face" style of game. They pressured Concordia all evening long. Coach Pruden wasn't happy with the way Concordia played in the first part of the game "You are playing like you never saw them before. Wake up!" said Pruden during a 2nd quarter timeout...a quarter in which Concordia only scored 4 points (and not the 3rd like it's written on the score sheet). UQAM lead was 14 at the half.

    The second half of the game was pretty much like the first, except that UQAM slowed down in the fourth quarter, which permitted Concordia to come back in the game. Final score : 65-59.

    Karine Boudrias had a hard time (for her standards) from the 3 point range early on. She did end the game with 23.

    Irline Noel had a great first week-end of play. After getting a huge night on friday (19 points, 14 rebounds), she continued her good work on saturday with 18 points and 9 rebounds.

    Kristle Douglas led Concordia in scoring with 13 points.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think before you say that the TRU vs SFU schedule change was last minute you should do a little background checking.

    The reasoning is very simple. Canada West doesn't look at other sports when they do their scheduling so it happens that TRU had home games for both of their basketball and volleyball teams on the same weekend (it will also happen a couple of other times this year). So when the 2008/09 schedule came out last May, that is when the games were adjusted. SFU should have known about those changes a long time ago, and if their coach didn't inform them, that their own business. If you want to put the blame on someone blame the CIS/Canada West and their lack of schedule checking.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hole's wording made it sound like a last-minute thing, but yeah, the schedule has clearly said Wednesday for a while. I'll change that.

    @ AlexT - Thanks for the recap. Any idea how long Bibeau-Côté is out for?

    ReplyDelete