They were the top-seeded team in the Eastern Conference of women’s OUA basketball, riding a 14-game win streak that dated back to Nov. 29, 2008. They were a confident and experienced group, strengthened by their leadership and emboldened by their talent.
That confidence was dashed on Feb. 25, when the Blues hosted the Ottawa Gee-Gees at the Athletic Centre Sports Gym in a single-elimination playoff battle for OUA Eastern Conference supremacy. But far from playing like a top-seeded team, the Blues played what was perhaps their worst game of the year in their most important match as they were steamrolled 68-55, losing for the first time 2009 in what became their last game of the season.
“Ottawa came in and basically beat us up on our home court,” said head coach Michele Belanger, her voice tinged with the disappointment of a lost opportunity.
It was an uphill battle from the beginning. Struggling with their shots and consistency, they opened the game with a terrible first quarter. Costly turnovers in both zones and poor decision-making by the Blues allowed the Lady Gees to scorch them to a 17-9 lead in the first. It was the first time an opponent has succeeded in limiting the Blues offence to only single-digit points in a quarter this season. The Lady Gees employed a strangling zone defence and a swift transition game that left the Blues running around offensively and defensively.
Only after the Lady Gees extended their lead by as many as 15 points in the second did the Blues slowly wake from their stupor. Sparked by fourth-year guard Jessica Hiew’s three-pointer at the eight-minute mark of the second, the game opened up as they roared with a 12-4 run to finish the first half down 28-21.
A back-and-forth affair in the third quarter saw the Blues play tougher in the paint and smarter in team positioning. This cut the Lady Gees lead to 42-37 and within five points to start the fourth quarter. The game was still in hand and a victory still possible.
But whether it was the nerves of having to battle from behind, or the aggressiveness of the Lady Gees, the Blues fell apart at the seams in the final quarter. They first lost the on-court battles before losing their on-court composure.
“We fell apart,” explained Belanger. “They just fell apart. We didn’t close out well, put them on the foul line and they started making their foul shots. And they got a lot of shots in the second half.”
Of the 27 free-throw attempts made by the Lady Gees, who have been brilliant from the line with a free-throw percentage of 88.9 per cent, 23 of them came in the second half. The Blues by contrast shot only 58.3 per cent or 14-for-24 from the free-throw line, a costly statistic that proved to be the Blues undoing.
“They shot the ball well from the foul line,” said Belanger. “We didn’t shoot the ball well from the foul line. We didn’t shoot the ball well, period. Not sure what that’s from, it’s certainly more a personal thing than a mental thing. We were offensively out-of-synch.”
The better team won the game. Ottawa outplayed, outsmarted, and outlasted Toronto, superior to the Blues in nearly every major category and aspect of the game. They succeeded in containing Toronto’s OUA All-Stars in fourth-year Alaine Hutton and third-year Nicki Schutz, as they struggled against their shots. They combined for only 15 points in the game, a number well below their regular season average and arguably their worst performance of the year, a bitter and crushing ending to a solid year of women’s basketball at U of T.
“Overall, I’m pretty pleased [with the season],” said Belanger with a last smile. “They amounted to a lot. We just ended up falling apart and it’s just unfortunate it had to happen in this game.”
