Brock women perfect to start 2024
The Brock Badgers women’s basketball team started 2024 off with a bang, knocking off previously unbeaten and 10th-ranked Toronto Metropolitan 78-56 and then following it up with a 70-52 triumph over the University of Toronto.
Brock (7-4) snapped Toronto Metropolitan’s 10-game winning streak with the win and avenged a 71-48 loss on Nov. 11.
“We played well,” Brock head coach Mike Rao said. “It started defensively. We ramped it up on defence. We were aggressive and we shut down a lot of gaps. We didn’t give them a lot of holes to come through and then I think we were a little more aggressive with their shooters.”
The game was a far cry from the Nov. 11 encounter in which Brock trailed 25-23 at the half.
“The second half we got too complacent and we just sat back and didn’t challenge any shooters,” Rao said. “They hit nine or 10 threes on us in the second half and that didn’t happen this time.”
Against Toronto Metropolitan, the Badgers built quarter leads of 17-15, 46-31 and 69-38 to record the victory.
Rao has been focusing on defence with his team and feels that part of his team’s play is still a work in progress.
“I don’t want to say that it is rounding into form but we were there for the one night.”
Top performers for the Badgers were: Madalyn Weinert with 20 points and nine assists; Tito Akinnusi with 17 points and nine rebounds; Olivia Fiorucci with 16 points and six rebounds; and, Angeline Campbell with 11 points.
Leading scorers for the Rams were Catrina Garvey with 21 points and Jayme Foreman with 11 points.
In the victory over Toronto (2-9), Brock built quarter leads of 17-15, 35-27 and 50-44 before putting the game away with a dominating final quarter.
“It wasn’t a pretty game, let’s put it that way,” he said. “It was muddled. We played 12 players and I was searching for a lineup to give us a defensive foundation. That was my primary focus because the offence will come. If we can defend, we will be OK and in the fourth quarter we held them to five points and that was the difference.”
Leading the way for Brock were: Weinert with 27 points, 11 rebounds and five steals; Akinnusi with 23 points and 14 rebounds; Audrey Ntetani Umba with six points and five rebounds; and, Noor Bazzi with six points.
Top scorers for Toronto were Sabrina Nero with 18 points and Ellen Ougrinov with 11 points.
Weinert is leading the league in scoring at 20.6 points per game and Akinnusi is fourth with 18.7 points per game. Akinnusi is second in the league with 11.1 rebounds per game.
Brock hosts Algoma (1-9) Friday at 6 p.m. and travels to West Division-leading Guelph (8-4) Saturday for a 6 p.m. start.
