WBB | Voyageurs Fall to Fourth-Ranked Ravens
The Laurentian Voyageurs women's basketball team dropped a hard—fought encounter against the fourth ranked team in the nation, the Carleton Ravens on Saturday evening by a score of 78-63.
The Ravens started strong, as they went on a 13-2 run to start the match. But then the Voyageurs made their comeback, as a pair of buckets from Bailey Tabin and a three pointer from rookie Gabby Schaffner put the Voyageurs within seven points of the Ravens. Ultimately, the Ravens outscored the Voyageurs 20-11 in the quarter, largely due to immense contributions from Alyssa Cerina and Marlee Ball who scored eight points each. The Voyageurs on the other hand were led by Bailey Tabin with four points and Gabby Schaffner with three points. Finally, the Ravens had an excellent shooting quarter as they went 50.0% from the field, whereas the Voyageurs went 28.6% from the field.
The Voyageurs did not fare much better in the second quarter either as they scored 11 points and were unable to close the gap between themselves and the Ravens. At the conclusion of the first half, the Ravens possessed a 16 point lead as the score line read 41-25. Marlee Ball and Emma Huff were the leading scorers from the Ravens with six points each whereas Danielle Reid, Maria La Rosa and Arielle Douillette were the leading scorers from the Voyageurs with four, three and three points respectively.
The Voyageurs competed evenly with the Ravens in the third quarter. They both scored 22 points in the quarter but unfortunately, this meant that the Vees were unable to reduce the deficit. Alyssa Cerino added another six points to her tally while meanwhile she was trailed by Tatyanna Burke with four as the second highest scorer in the quarter from her team. Tabin from the Voyageurs scored the highest of anyone on the court in the quarter with seven points and she was followed by three other teammates with three points each.
The Voyageurs did not allow the match to get out of hand as they kept pace with the Ravens throughout the evening. As a matter of fact, they outscored the Ravens 16-15 in the final quarter and even cut the Raven lead to seven points with four minutes into the quarter but unfortunately for the Voyageurs, it was too little to late as they were simply unable to climb out of an early hole they found themselves in. The Voyageurs fell to the fourth ranked Ravens by a score of 78-63.
"The energy was better today. We made some mistakes in defence, some turnovers but I think the offence, the movement of the ball of the players was good" said Héléna Lamoureaux about her team's performance today.
The Voyageurs will now head to North Bay to take on their archrivals, the Nipissing Lakers, on Friday January 17. Tip off is scheduled for 6 pm at Robert J Surtees Student Athletics Centre.
Wali Khan