Badgers split northern road trip
The Brock Badgers women’s basketball team headed north last weekend and returned to St. Catharines with a split.
Brock started with a 67-53 victory at Nipissing (5-11) Friday before dropping a 53-50 decision to Laurentian (6-10) on Saturday.
“The first game was OK. We shot the ball pretty well and we D-ed it up OK,” Brock head coach Mike Rao said. “I thought we played just as well the second game but we didn’t shoot the ball all that well.”
Brock got off to its usual slow start against Laurentian in the first half.
“We cleaned up a lot of that in the second half but we just couldn’t spit in the ocean. Everything was rimming out, we missed wide-open layups and we had a dozen chances to go ahead and solidify the game but we never did.”
Against Nipissing, Brock trailed 17-17 after one quarter but led 41-33 and 52-39 after the second and third quarters.
Leading the way for Brock were:Olivia Fiorucci with 15 points; Madalyn Weinert with 11 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists; Noor Bazzi with 11 points; Oluwatito Aquinas with eight points; and Allison Addy with six points.
Against Laurentian, the home team led 38-26 at the half before Brock made it close by outscoring their opponents 24-15 in the second half.
Top performers for Brock were: Fiorucci with 13 points and seven boards; Weinert with 12 points, 11 rebounds and five assists; Kaley DeMont with 11 points; and, Aquinas with five points and 10 rebounds.
“We are still trying to get it together,” Rao said. “We are getting people off the injured reserve and a few people got back on injured reserve.”
And a bunch of players are playing through some nagging injuries.
“Injuries and not being able to play at 100 per cent is still there and it is late in the season,” he said. “I still don’t know a solid group that we can go to yet. I am looking for a solid seven or eight players but everything always changes from game to game. It is very difficult to get anything cohesive.”
The Badgers’ Ontario University Athletics record now sits at 9-7 heading into a pair of home games this weekend. Brock will host Toronto (4-14) Friday at 6 p.m. followed by Guelph (12-4) Saturday at 6 p.m. Guelph features Julia Colavecchia of Niagara Falls, Alexis Wright of Welland and Hannah Bourdon of Fort Erie.
“I am expecting the same. We are still trying to find ourselves and we will see what the weekend brings,” Rao said. “We are going to try and work as hard as we can and do the best we can.”
Rao is looking forward to an addition to his lineup.
“I think Chloe Peters is going to dress for the first time in three years so we have another piece who is going to come on. It is going to disrupt everything a bit but we have to see what we can get from her.”
