The Varsity Blues women’s basketball team has had a tough road ahead of them. With a sixth-place finish in the OUA East, the Blues were unable to play in front of their fans for the entire playoffs. While the women finished the regular season with an 11-11 record, only three of those wins came on enemy territory, and since they held the lowest seed they would be matched up against the highest ranked opponent.
The Blues’ first stop was Kingston on Wednesday night for the OUA East quarter-final. While U of T and Queen’s split their season series 1-1, the Gaels won their game at home by 18 points. The Blues made sure they would exact their revenge with a 62-54 win, and nothing hurts more than being eliminated from the playoffs.
The game was tied 23-23 at half-time, but the Blues would win the third quarter 25-15 and never looked back. The Gaels did make it close, scoring eight straight points to open the fourth quarter in the midst of a 10-0 run and pulling within two points. They traded baskets until 1:45 to go, when U of T went on an 8-2 run and sealed the win. Fourth-year guard Erin McNeely scored five of her 18 points during the run, and forward Megan Stoncius pulled down two key rebounds in that span.
Nicki Schutz had game highs with 21 points and 10 rebounds, as she recorded her sixth straight double-double and 13th of the season. Coach Michèle Bélanger played four of her starters at least 34 minutes. First-year starter Katelyn McConnell also chipped in with 10 points and five rebounds in 29 minutes.
Saturday saw the Blues go to Ottawa to take on the first-seed Carleton Ravens in the OUA East semi-final. Carleton won the season series 2-0, but beat the Blues by only six points when they met last time at the Athletic Centre. Saturday’s game wasn’t as close, unfortunately, as the Ravens handed the Blues a 68-46 loss that ended U of T’s season. Schutz had another great game, scoring 18 points and pulling down 18 rebounds, and Joanna Medri added 10 points and five steals. As a team, the Blues shot 37 per cent from the field, while the Ravens shot 48 per cent, including hitting 10 three-pointers that proved to be the difference despite the Blues’ defence creating 21 turnovers.
The Blues have a young team, with only two players in their fourth year of eligibility. If both Schutz and McNeely return for a fifth year, next year’s team could potentially be the same team we watched this year. Schutz finished the season third in the OUA in scoring with 18 points per game and first in rebounding with 11 rebounds per game, and McNeely was 12th in assists with 3.1 assists per game. Medri and Stoncius are the only third-year players, and first-year players McConnell, Alicia Van Kampen, and Amanda Lum show a lot of promise for the years to come. Next season will be a good year for women’s basketball at U of T if the core group of players returns, and being a year older, a year wiser, and with a year’s worth of experience under their belts, they can only get better.
