Brock women topple unbeaten Queen’s

Approaching the end of a nightmarish five-game stretch of its Ontario University Athletics schedule, the Brock Badgers women’s basketball team was able to celebrate a 80-66 home victory Friday night over the previously unbeaten Queen’s Gaels.

The mood of the players was ecstatic as head coach Mike Rao addressed them in the locker room after they had snapped their three-game losing streak.

“It was two weeks of hard work and my God,” he said to loud cheering. “I don’t know what to say. Wow. That was beyond my expectations. We played so hard and we really played smart in the second half. That’s the kind of basketball I want. You guys were completely unselfish. Nobody cared who the hell scored but you all scored.”

All five starters scored in double digits for the Badgers (3-3) and key contributions off the bench came from Keren Tshinyama Kasonga, Ilijana Vukovic, Madison Macinnis and Shailah Adams.

“It was great. They played really hard, they played smart and they played really good basketball,” Rao said afterwards. “It’s coming. People are piecing it together.”

The aforementioned stretch of five games, which concludes Saturday at 6 p.m. with a game at the Meridian Centre against the McMaster Marauders, featured five teams with a cumulative record of 27-3 heading into Friday night’s action, including unbeaten Toronto Metropolitan, national champion Carleton and Queen’s (not any more).

“You have to work hard. I look at our opponent but I don’t,” Rao said. “I am really concentrating on what we do, how we maintain ourselves and how we play. Our opponent is our opponent, it’s just different numbers. We try to tailor ourselves to who we play with the same principles, the same plan, the same everything.”

Queen’s led 17-12 after one quarter and 35-28 at the half before the Badgers seized control of the game by outscoring the Gaels 27-14 in the third quarter and 25-17 in the half.

Key to Brock’s second-half turnaround was Oluwatito Akinnusi, who sat for most of the first half before returning in the second half to help reverse a deficit in the rebounding department. She would finish with 16 boards in 27 minutes of playing time.

Angeline Campbell also had a huge second half with a number of key baskets, including a buzzer-beating three with five and half minutes left in the game.

STATS PACK

Badgers 80 Gaels 66

Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Brock’s Angeline Campbell with 19 points and six rebounds.

For the Brock Badgers: Campbell, 19 points and six rebounds; Olivia Fiorucci, 15 points; Madalyn Weinert, 12 points, six rebounds and seven assists; Noor Bazzi, 12 points; Oluwatito Akinnusi, 11 points and 16 rebounds.

For the Queen’s Gaels: Laura Donovan 18; Emma Weltz 9; Julia Chadwick 8.

Game stats: Shooting percentage: Brock 45.3, Queen’s 29.9. Free throws: Brock 14-16, Queens 12-14. Rebounds: Brock 40, Queen’s 31. Turnovers: Brock 18, Queen’s 8.

Up next: Brock hosts the McMaster Marauders Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Meridian Centre.