HAMILTON, Ont. (CIS) - The OUA champion Windsor Lancers survived a scare but CIS rookie of the year Jessica Clemençon bailed them out with a 21-point performance en route to a 64-46 win over Ottawa in an all-Ontario quarter-final at Burridge Gymnasium on Friday afternoon, in the opening game of the 2010 CIS women's basketball championship, hosted by McMaster.
Championship web site (complete stats): http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/wbkb
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R4yxAono7I
Clemençon of St. Rambert, France, a first-year post player, was named Russell Athletics player of the game for the winners, going 7-for-10 from the field and 7-for-8 on free throws, and adding six rebounds in the win.
A 19-0 run to open the third quarter gave the No. 2-seeded Lancers the cushion they needed to hold on to win. Windsor advances to the national semifinal for the second straight year, and will play the winner of the second quarter-final between No. 3 Saskatchewan and No. 6 Cape Breton on Saturday at 6 p.m.
Windsor had dominated seventh-ranked Ottawa by 28 points in the OUA final with an 83-55 win last Saturday at Montpetit Hall in Ottawa. Clemençon said the team remained composed at the half despite entering the locker-room with just a two-point lead, 31-29.
"We are often successful in the third quarter, we are more focussed as a team. We have to make sure we stay focussed for the whole game," she said. "We knew it would be a different game today. We're just taking it one game at a time."
Windsor, which lost only once in the regular season with a 21-1 record to win the OUA West division, improved to 3-0 in the playoffs.
Lancers head coach Chantal Vallée said she was pleased with the team's performance and said the team was calm at the half.
"They are a well-coached team with good athletes, we expected a closer game (from last week)," said Vallée, the OUA West coach of the year. "The last time we played them, they had 19 offensive rebounds. They were the top team in the nation in offensive rebounding. We worked on boxing out a lot this week in practices but also knew to not get mad about (losing the offensive rebounding battle). We knew to not focus on the little details and just execute our gameplan."
Former Czech Republic junior national team player Iva Peklova
(Prague, Czech Republic) scored 11 points and added a team-high
seven rebounds for Windsor, including two of her team's nine on the
offensive glass.
Ottawa Russell Athletics player of the game Émilie Morasse
(Quebec City) paced Ottawa with 11 points and nine rebounds, while
OUA East player of the year Hannah Sunley-Paisley (Toronto) also
had 11 points to go with eight boards.
Ottawa dropped its first playoff game of the campaign after going 3-0 in the OUA post-season with wins over Laurentian, Ryerson and Carleton after going 12-10 in the regular season to finish in fourth place in the OUA East.
Gee-Gees head coach Andy Sparks said he was pleased with his team's overall performance, but was disappointed with the third-quarter lapse.
"We called a couple of timeouts to try to put some composure back out there, but they needed to make plays and our players didn't. They (Windsor) made plays," said Sparks, who led his team to the CIS tournament in each of his first two seasons at the helm.
"We saw things last weekend we could attack, but we got away from those things in the third quarter."
Sparks said he wished Windsor the best of luck in their quest to become the first Ontario team to win a national title since 1991, and the first to reach the title match since 1997.
"They are a very good team, I'll be interested to see how they'll handle it going forward," he said. "They have a chance, they have players who can play with Simon Fraser... but they are young."
The Gee-Gees will play the loser of the Saskatchewan-Cape Breton quarter-final in the consolation semifinal on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Ottawa led for a good portion of the opening quarter, holding
the OUA champion Lancers to just six points in the opening five
minutes. But cold five-for-17 shooting cost them an opportunity to
build a sizable lead in the opening 10 minutes as the Lancers led
23-12 after the first frame.
In the second, Ottawa clawed back to make it a two-point affair at
the break.
The Lancers opened up the third quarter outscoring Ottawa 21-2 in the opening eight minutes of the period. Windsor led by as much as 22 points in the game.
Despite struggling on the offensive glass - the Gee-Gees held a 16-9 edge in the game, 13-4 in the opening three quarters - Ottawa was unable to capitalize on their opportunities, scoring just three second-chance points in the game. They shot 31.6% in the game from the field, and were a dismal 50% at the charity stripe (5-of-10).
The Gee-Gees lost their opening game at nationals for the second straight season, after losing in 2008-09 to Simon Fraser by a score of 89-42. Windsor defeated Saskatchewan 63-55 in their 2008-09 quarter-final win, but lost 86-68 to Regina in the national semifinal.
The last Ontario team to win the Bronze Baby trophy women's basketball championship was the Laurentian Lady Vees, back-to-back winners in 1990-91 and 1989-90. Windsor is making only the CIS tourney second appearance in team history.
STAT LEADERS
Windsor
Points: Jessica Clemençon (21), Iva Peklova (11)
Rebounds: Iva Peklova (7), Jessica Clemençon (6), Bojana
Kovacevic (6)
Assists: Shavaun Reaney (6)
Russell Athletics player of the game: Jessica Clemençon
Ottawa
Points: Emilie Morasse (11), Hannah Sunley-Paisley (11)
Rebounds: Emilie Morasse (9), Hannah Sunley-Paisley (8)
Assists: Kayte Chase (4)
Russell Athletics player of the game: Emilie Morasse
Scoring By Quarter
1 2 3 4 T
Ottawa 12 17 4 13 46
Windsor 23 8 24 9 64
SCHEDULE & RESULTS
Friday, March 12
Quarter-final #1: Windsor 64, Ottawa 46
15:00 Quarter-final #2: No. 3 Saskatchewan vs. No. 6 Cape Breton
(Cable 14 & SSN Canada)
18:00 Quarter-final #3: No. 1 Simon Fraser vs. No. 8 McMaster
(Cable 14 & SSN Canada)
20:00 Quarter-final #4: No. 4 Regina vs. No. 5 Laval (Cable 14
& SSN Canada)
Saturday, March 13
13:00 Consolation #1: Ottawa vs. Loser QF #2
15:00 Consolation #2: Loser QF #3 vs. Loser QF #4
18:00 Semifinal #1: Windsor vs. Winner QF #2 (Cable 14 & SSN
Canada)
20:00 Semifinal #2: Winner QF #3 vs. Winner QF #4 (Cable 14 &
SSN Canada)
Sunday, March 14
10:00 5th place
12:00 Bronze medal (Cable 14 & SSN Canada)
15:00 Championship final (TSN2 & SSN Canada)
-CIS-