Women's basketball Top 10 tracker: Last weekend for West, Top 10 matchup between MUN and Dal

This week we have Calgary vs. Alberta and Memorial vs. Dalhousie as a pair of two-gamers to watch. Also keep an eye on the close race in the OUA East: U of T plays Ottawa Friday and Carleton Saturday.

1. Windsor
(#2, say the coaches): Rode Iva Peklova's 13 points and 15 boards to a 64-56 win over McMaster on Wednesday night and Alisa Wulff's 20 and 12 to an 80-62 win over Brock on Saturday. Five players hit double digits against the Badgers and both teams nearly shot 50%.

t-2. Simon Fraser (#1): Finish their season with two in Manitoba against the Bisons and Wesmen this weekend. They beat Winnipeg 87-56 with Robyn Buna netting 25, the only one on the winning team to break double digits. Against the Bisons on Saturday, the Clan scored 100 for the third time this season--only two other teams have done that and both did so against RMC. Points leaders were Buna and Laurelle Weigl with 20, Lisa Tindle with 17, and Courtney Gerwing with 16. Weigl and Gerwing had double-doubles with 11 rebounds and 11 assists, respectively.

Be sure to click through to Kate Hole's latest, a wonderfully snarky and effective takedown of a throwaway comment in SFU's student paper. Hang in until the last sentence if you do.

t-2. Saskatchewan (#3): The Huskies are in Lethbridge for two. Bit of a scare in game 1 with a minute left, with only a two-point lead for the U of S. Kim Tulloch sunk two free throws to ice it. Those were two of her nine on the night. Jill Humbert led with 16 and Lauren Whyte added 10 off the bench.

Saturday, however, the last-minute-free-throw heroics came from Lethbridge as the Huskies lost 71-70 in overtime. The Pronghorns have done this before, with unexpected wins over Alberta and UBC this year, and it was their fourth meeting of the season, so let's not rush to wonder what's wrong with the U of S just yet. They were 5 of 19 from long range; that may have played a role in their loss (and in never having a lead larger than seven points).

4. Victoria (#6): Host TRU and UFV, both games online at 6 PT Friday, 5 PT Saturday. If you didn't tune in Friday, you missed a career-high 33 points from Kayla Dykstra, who was 13 of 18 from the field and 7 of 7 from the line. Vikes won 78-52. Dykstra played all 40 against Thompson Rivers, the first time she's done that this year, and scored 21 as a result. It appears the Vikes as a whole had trouble shooting and only scored 65 in beating TRU by seven.

There's a piece in the Victoria Times Colonist about Vanessa Forstbauer's return to the court after a year dealing with a heart condition. It's worth a read (glove tap: The Vikes Horn).

5. Alberta (#5): Play the Dinos in Edmonton in games that mean nothing in the standings, but probably mean a bit more than that to the players. Ashley Wigg and Kristin Jarock, playing their last games at the U of A, recorded 12 points/12 assists (!) and 15 points/6 rebounds, respectively, on Friday night as the Pandas won by 30 points. They won by 24 on Saturday: 16 for Wigg but 18 in just 17 minutes for Marisa Haylett, a season-high for her.

t-6. Regina (#4): The Cougars host Brandon Friday and Saturday and audio is apparently available for both. And if you thought winning by 30 was a big margin, how about the 85-34 victory that Regina had over Brandon in the first game? They outscored the Bobcats 26-4 in the fourth. Another big win came on Saturday: 85-55, with nobody playing more than 22 minutes on the Cougars' bench.

Also of note is that seven players are graduating from the U of R this year.

t-6. Memorial (#7): Their two games in Halifax (Saturday and Sunday) against Dal are the only ones this weekend involving two Top 10 teams, so it'd be best to keep an eye on them.

Memorial won the first by three and lost the second by five. Both boxscores are now available, and it looks like Brittany Dalton was the leader in the first game (18 points, 7 steals, but six turnovers) and Victoria Thistle led in game 2 with 22 points.

t-6. Laval (NR): Their home-and-home this weekend is with Concordia. It's would be a good opportunity to pull away from the other teams in the Q, had they not lost the first game 76-70 in overtime. The Rouge et Or outshot and out-rebounded their opponents, but those turnovers: 15 for the Stingers; 28 (!) for Laval. Chanelle St-Amour led with 17 in a losing cause. Of course the CIS doesn't give you the entire story: the boxscore has just the first four quarters and Concordia's huge, overtime-forcing 29-8 fourth (as detailed in the Laval recap) is nowhere to be found.

The second game went the other way, as these home-and-homes often do. Laval won just by one, though: 19 from Elyse Jobin (11 at the line) led the Rouge et Or. It's her second-highest points total this year, with her 27 point-game also coming against Concordia.

t-9. Toronto (NR): Just one game ahead of Carleton and Ottawa, the Blues have games against both of those teams this weekend, both at home. They beat Ottawa (their 10th win a row), turning a two-point halftime deficit into a six-point win. Nicki Schutz got a double-double (15 and 11); Sherri Pierce added 12. The Blues then rode four of their starters for 32+ minutes each: Tara Kinnear had 13 points and 10 rebounds, Schutz added 20, and Alaine Hutton led with 22.

t-9. Dalhousie (#10): Split the weekend against Memorial. Cailin Crosby picked up 32 over the two games, with 10 boards in the first game. Before this weekend she had only 59 points, so there were definitely some season highs in there for her.

Also in the CIS Top 10 or close to it:

Winnipeg: The Wesmen are better than I've been letting on and they beat TWU by 20 on Saturday: Jessica Stromberg's double-double (11 and 12) and Caitlin Gooch's 17 leading the way.

Cape Breton: Tied with Memorial for first in the AUS, even though they're really two games behind. In any event, they're on the island this weekend for two against low-ranked UPEI. They split the series, losing the second game by two points.

Western: 11th in the coaches' poll and they had a two-gamer against Lakehead in London this weekend. They won both games, albeit by a combined 8 points. Amanda Anderson had 27 in Friday's game to put her first all-time among Mustang scorers. The Mustangs were down four with 71 seconds to go, but good D and free throws reversed that and they won 66-63. A strange double-double for Bess Lennox who had ten points, all on free throws, and 11 boards. Anderson added 19 more on Saturday and Lennox had 16 and 11 this time: Western by five, 67-62.
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3 comments:

  1. Big Man on Campus has a nice post up in response about Windsor being the top team in the land, even though they — biggest scandal since the NEP! — are not from Western Canada.

    The year before FIBA rules came in, if memory serves, Dranadia Roc was putting up some ridiculous scoring numbers. It wasn't my place to say it about a team I don't get to watch, but I wondered off-hand what they might do with the shorter shot clock and more talent around her. Now look at the Lancers.

    Mac made some cracks in the glass ceiling at the women's Final 8 last season. Maybe it's Windsor's time.

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  2. Lest I have several Saskatonians and Burnabites (Burnabies?) coming after me, the coaches have almost always put SFU first and Windsor second and I think that's the better 1-2 ordering.

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  3. Top game scores of the week:
    27.5 Kayla Dykstra (UVic, 2/6)
    23.9 Laurelle Weigl (SFU, 2/7)
    23.1 Kayla Dykstra (UVic, 2/7)
    19.2 Kenzie Sheen (Lethbridge, 2/7)
    18.9 Alisa Wulff (Windsor, 2/7)

    That 27.5 is a season high for Dykstra and fourth overall this season. She now has six of the top 20 game scores this year so we might as well give her all the awards right now.

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