Women's basketball: Top 10 tracker: Dinos come close, SFU-UBC go back and forth

As is often the case, the interesting games involve West teams. The Dinos gave the U of S Huskies a run, but came away 0-2. The only game scheduled for Sunday is #32 at #26, so we'll call it a week with the results below.

1. Saskatchewan (coaches' #4): 88-55 and 61-53 over Lethbridge in their first two games of 2009, last weekend. Jana Spindler owned the court in the second game with 20 (8 of 13, and 4 of 5 from the line). Their first game against Calgary...well, let's let U of C SID Ben Matchett provide the lede: "It had all the makings of an upset: a unique coaching strategy, a comeback by the home side, and foul trouble for the visitors. But the University of Calgary Dinos let one slip away Friday night in the Jack Simpson Gym, falling 66-65 on two late free throws by the Saskatchewan Huskies’ Jill Humbert." The Huskies won the second Calgary game on Saturday, too, with Spindler doing her usual.

A commenter notes below how the CW Central division is basically the Group of Death this year--with that in mind, is it too early to call the U of S the favourites for the Bronze Baby?

2. Simon Fraser (#1): Beat Regina by 17 last Saturday and Brandon by a lot before that. They held off the Vikes on Friday night, Robyn Buna grabbing 20+ yet again. SFU beat UBC last night; Scott McLean, stellar SFU SID and Don Johnson imitator, has the recap in the following video:



3. Alberta (#3): Last week, won by 8 in one game against Calgary despite shooting 32%, then improved that percentage by 20 points and beat the Dinos by 21 the next day. With two home games this weekend against the Pronghorns, it's best to expect two more wins for this team that seems to beat nearly everyone they play.

Of course, the above paragraph was written before this game, a 65-60 Lethbridge win in overtime. We'll see what that does to the Pandas' ranking on Tuesday.

4. Windsor (#4): Picked up an easy win over 32nd-ranked Guelph during the week and a trip to 40th-ranked Waterloo this weekend should not be significantly more difficult. Four Lancers hit double digits against the Gryphs, led (as is often the case) by Dranadia Roc. And unlike their male counterparts, they beat the Warriors, who were called for 30 personal fouls last night.

5. Victoria (#9): A pair of wins over Fraser Valley (ranked 41st), by 17 and 23, may not be as easy to come by as a pair of wins over Simon Fraser and Trinity Western this weekend (and sure enough, they only beat the latter). Still, Kayla Dykstra continued what is quickly becoming a very good season with a 7-for-11, 13-rebound, 14-point night in one of those UFV wins, and another double-double against the Clan. A 19-10 fourth quarter against TWU allowed them to win by seven and sweep the three-game season series.

t-6. Regina (#5): Had a bit of a stunner against TWU last week, losing 83-56. The Spartans' Katie Haworth managed a game score of 24.3 against the Cougars, which is not only pretty darn high, but twice as high as any other score she's put up this year. Also lost to SFU, but who doesn't? The first game on the road against the Bisons saw the Cougars shooting merely 26% but rebounding twice as often as Manitoba, so in the end they took it by eight. The second game wasn't that close, but Tim Switzer noticed Chelsea Cassano's 44-point-and-30-rebound-in-43-minutes weekend.

t-6. UBC (NR): It probably means very little, but from here on, none of the top 10 in RPI coincide with the CIS Top 10. Thursday night against TWU was a three-point squeaker, but the 'Birds won. Double-double for Zara Huntley. And the SFU game last night was also very close--every quarter but the fourth ended with a team leading by one point--but the short bench may have had something to do with the end result.

8. Dalhousie (NR): Beat Acadia on Friday, 77-64. Excellent night for Brooke Sullivan who sank five from downtown as part of her 23 points.

9. Toronto (NR): "@ Carleton, @ Ottawa" sounds much more menacing when it's the men's game. Still, there is very little keeping the Gee-Gees out of our top 10, and little keeping the Blues in after a mere seven-point win over the Ravens. It looks like U of T rode a 17-7 first quarter to beat Ottawa.

10. UQAM (NR): This weekend they have a home-and-home, sort of, with McGill. Part 1 went the Citadins' way: 70-55; 50-31 after three. Jessica Bibeau-Côté hit 5 of 11 for 16 to lead the winners. Part 2: more of the same. Over two-thirds of the Martlets' shots came from three players on Saturday, which seems high.

Other teams in the CIS Top 10 include Calgary (11th in RPI), Winnipeg (20th), Memorial (12th), and Cape Breton (16th). It's a little surprising to see the Wesmen ranked 7th, and it'll be hard to judge after this week how they're doing, with two against low-ranked Brandon.
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1 comment:

  1. It's got to be so frustrating. Saskatchewan, Alberta and Calgary all in the CIS top 10, all in the RPI top 11, and all in the same division of the same conference. One of the three will not even make the Canada West championships, never mind the nationals. Right now, it's unfortunately looking like it's Calgary that will not make it. Coach Harle has her best team since the days of Tanya Hautla, Lindsay Maundrell and the Bekkerings, and it will mean nothing but third. I feel bad for them.

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