Courtesy Wayne Kondro, The Ottawa Citizen
It may be the end of a dream.
After a splendid season of finding ways to win and hoping to find a way to make their first appearance in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport women’s basketball championships, the Carleton Ravens will have to rely on the vagaries of wild card selection if they’re to venture to Windsor next weekend.
The Ravens fell 64-59 to the St. Francis Xavier X-Women in a defensive struggle in which they relinquished a staggering 18 offensive rebounds, a bushel of second-chance opportunities and shot a dreary 21-for-56 (37.5%) on their home court in Saturday night’s Central Regional final.
Coach Taffe Charles was distraught at the notion the Ravens would have to rely on a wild-card invitation if they’re to play for a national title.
“We were just hoping to win. Nobody got any bodies on people. They wanted it more than we did and it showed. We had our opportunities,” Charles said. “I was hoping that we’d be better. I thought we’d learned our lessons, but obviously not.”
As for Carleton’s wild card chances, Charles said: “We had a chance to get in the way we wanted to. We don’t have a lot of history backing us. They say these things aren’t political, but sometimes they are. We tried to avoid that. Right now, who knows?”
Although Carleton struggled to find any kind of shooting touch, they clawed to a 22-20 lead at the half largely as a consequence of stellar defence. They efficiently closed off penetration lanes, leaving the X-Women almost entirely reliant on the post moves of Donisha Young.
St. FX took command of the offensive glass early in the second half, with several putbacks and a couple of three-point baskets by Ashley Stephen putting the X-Women ahead 44-37. Carleton rallied back to within 50-49 on great ball distribution by Alyson Bush and tough baskets by Kendall MacLeod.
However, the X-Women kept pounding the ball inside to Young, and they rebuilt a slim lead before icing it from the perimeter on a three-pointer by Sheryl Chisholm, an 18-footer by Rebecca Sheehan, and two free throws by Stephen.
“Whee,” an elated Stephen said. “We played our game. From the beginning, we wanted to box them out. They’re the No. 1 defensive rebounding team in the country. We knew we had a job to do and we just did it. We knew we just had to come out and play hard, and we knew that, if we gave it our all, it would happen.”
X-Women coach Matt Skinn said offensive rebounding was the difference.
“Our second chances gave us the advantage,” Skinn said. “And Donisha worked her butt off (Saturday night). She was getting position inside.”
Young paced St. FX with 16 points. Stephen added 15, and Chisholm had 11.
MacLeod led Carleton with 16 points. Ashleigh Cleary added 15, and Bush chipped in with 10.