Nine straight wins for Brock women

The Brock women’s basketball team continues to roll in Ontario University Athletics play.

With a 67-52 victory over the visiting Windsor Lancers Friday night, the Badgers pushed their winning streak to nine games and improved to 14-4 in league play. All nine wins in the streak have come after the Christmas Break.

“It’s just the girls. The girls want to play hard, they’ve got each other’s back and they help each other out,” Brock head coach Mike Rao said. “They defend and they keep listening to me. I don’t know why. They just keep going and going and going and there is no quit in their game.”

Brock was in tough against a Windsor team that had a distinct size advantage.

“They are a really big team and I thought we did well defensively. We held them to about 50 points and that was pretty good.”

The key stretch of the game came during a huge chunk of the first half with Madalyn Weinert on the bench with two fouls. The Badgers built a 31-19 lead with her on the sidelines and rode that to a 33-30 lead at halftime.

Brock also had to survive with Tito Akinnusi in the first half after she also picked up two fouls and again in the final 6:25 of the game when she rolled her ankle after getting tangled up with a Windsor player getting back on defence.

Brock received key contributions off the bench from freshman Vienna Vercesi and third-year veteran Madison Macinnis. The latter wasn’t flashy but she played 31 minutes and contributed four points, four rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block.

“She gave up really great minutes,” Rao said. “I liked her defensive play and I like her on the offensive end too. She got some boards and she didn’t score but she was a threat. That was primary for us because the threat took some defenders away and allowed some other players to score.”

The Badgers continue to improve with each game they play.

“The ball movement and the player movement is getting better but we do some different things at times that we need to work on but for the most part the ball is moving,” he said.

As always, Rao is looking for the next improvement in his team’s play.

“We have to move better in unison. We are still not reading each other and we are still not reading gaps when there are there. We have to move to where open spots are instead of just standing there. The ball is moving but we are not moving as well. Once we get the ball movement and the players moving together we will be much better.”

STATS PACK

Badgers 67 Lancers 52

BPSN Player of the Game: Brock’s Olivia Fiorucci with 15 points, including 3-4 from three-point range.

For the Brock Badgers: Madalyn Weinert 19; Fiorucci 15; Tito Akinnusi 12; Noor Bazzi 10.

For the Windsor Lancers: Marianne Dehkissia 8; Vanessa Budimunda 8.

Game stats: Shooting percentage: Brock 46.8, Windsor 33.3. Free throws: Brock 3-6, Windsor 5-11. Rebounds: Brock 34, Windsor 38. Turnovers: Brock 17, Windsor 13.

Up next: Brock hosts Western Saturday at 6 p.m