TORONTO – The visiting No. 10 Queen's Gaels stymied the league-leading Ryerson offence for most of Saturday night and upset the No. 2 Rams, 80-74 at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
BOXSCORE
The Rams were outrebounded for the first time this season and the Gaels had a variety of defensive looks that disrupted the flow of the Ryerson offence early on. The Rams committed an uncharacteristic 25 turnovers in the game in part because of that defence.
“They mixed it up a lot (defensively) which…definitely disrupted our offensive rhythm, especially in the second quarter. When we didn't rebound very well defensively either, we didn't get opportunities to get out in transition which is one of our strengths so those two things combined allowed them to get ahead and we were fighting from behind all game,” said head coach Carly Clarke after the loss.
The Rams trailed 19-18 after the first ten minutes in a back and forth quarter but it was the second stanza that was Ryerson's undoing. The Gaels moved to a 1-3-1 defence and the Rams managed just ten points in the quarter to trail 41-28 at the half.
“They showed a 1-3-1 which we haven't seen in a couple years so that was tough to adjust to,” commented starting point guard Cara Tiemens following the game. “We didn't adjust to it quick enough; we started to figure it out in the fourth quarter when it was a little bit too late. We made a good bounce back but it wasn't enough.”
When Ryerson started to make those adjustments in the second half, the offensive numbers returned to their quarter average but they couldn't string a run together to get closer than six points.
Queen's Jenny Wright was one of five Gaels to finish in double digits with a team-high 20 points while Robyn Pearson added 14 points and 12 rebounds for the double-double.
Ryerson's Keneca Pingue-Giles (Winnipeg, Man.) had a career night with 31 points while adding 12 rebounds, seven assists and seven steals. The 31 point performance is the second most by a single Rams player in team history.
The Rams fall to 6-2 on the season while Queen's improves to 8-1 to lead the OUA East division. Ryerson is back in action next weekend when they host the Carleton Ravens and Ottawa Gee-Gees at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
