March 1, 2015

Rams off to first Final Four with win over Ottawa

TORONTO – The No. 7 nationally ranked Ryerson Rams women’s basketball team punched their ticket to the OUA Final Four championship with a 73-47 victory over the Ottawa Gee-Gees on Saturday night in quarter-final action at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.

Ottawa

Ryerson

4th - 00:43

Ottawa

Ryerson

TORONTO – The No. 7 nationally ranked Ryerson Rams women's basketball team punched their ticket to the OUA Final Four championship with a 73-47 victory over the Ottawa Gee-Gees on Saturday night in quarter-final action at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.

Keneca Pingue-Giles (Winnipeg, Man.) had a big game with 20 points and 14 rebounds while Mariah Nunes (Ajax, Ont.) and Siki Jez (Kitchener, Ont.) each added 11 points in the Ryerson victory.

Coming into the contest the Gee-Gees owned the best defence in the league, surrendering just 52.3 points against, but Ryerson flipped the switch and played strong defence of their own, allowing just 47 Ottawa points on the night.

The two teams played a tight first quarter, trading baskets throughout the frame. Ryerson built a 15-7 lead but the visitors closed the quarter on a 6-0 run to make it just 15-13 Rams after ten minutes.

Ryerson stepped up the defensive pressure and held Ottawa to just eight points in the second quarter while posting 17 points of their own to open up a 32-21 lead at halftime.

The Rams had their best offensive performance in the third quarter, racking up 22 points on the Gee-Gees and outscoring the visitors by another ten points to own a 54-33 advantage heading into the final frame.

In the fourth the Rams limited Ottawa to just four made field goals to seal the 26-point victory.

"In these games, especially when they can be season ending games, it's so important to make sure that you focus on the process and don't get consumed with the outcome and trying to win the game," said head coach Carly Clarke following the game.

"Our plan was to keep the tempo up, which I think we did a great job of, and we wore them down over 40 minutes."

Saturday's victory sends the Rams to their first ever OUA Final Four championship tournament. Ryerson will face the Queen's Gaels in the OUA semifinal hosted by the Windsor Lancers next Friday, March 6. The other semifinal will see the host Lancers play the Lakehead Thunderwolves.

Stay tuned to ryersonrams.ca for all playoff information.