Gryphon women go cold late in fourth in loss to Western
GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphons were held scoreless in the final two and a half minutes of their OUA women’s basketball game with the Western Mustangs Saturday at the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre.
That allowed Western to break a tie and score a 68-62 victory in the Gryphons’ Senior Night Game.
The Gryphs led 16-15 at the end of the first quarter before Western surged ahead 35-28 by halftime. The gap was down to two points (53-51) by the end of the third quarter. The locals did pull even a couple of times in the final quarter, but never got ahead of the Mustangs.
Renee Armstrong had 24 points for the Gryphs while Julia Colavecchia and Lucy Tesseyman added 11 apiece. Armstrong also had 10 rebounds, three assists and two steals while Trinity Papamandjaris had eight rebounds, four blocks and two steals. Hannah Bourdon had seven rebounds and Alexis Wright had four assists and three steals.
Former Gryph MacKeely Shantz had 18 points, 15 rebounds and four steals for Western while Emily Capretta had 17 points and nine rebounds and Paris Alexander had 13 points. Sam Vidovic had four assists while Morgan Tamminga had 11 rebounds and three steals.
The Gryphs shot 27 percent on field goals, 19 percent (six-of-31) on three-pointers and 84 percent on free throws. They also grabbed 47 rebounds, had 13 assists, eight blocks and 10 steals, committed 19 turnovers, had 24 points in the paint, 13 points off Western turnovers, 14 second-chance points and received 14 points from their bench.
The Mustangs shot 33 percent on field goals, 30 percent on three-pointers and 55 percent on free throws and had 45 rebounds, 11 assists, two blocks, 12 steals, 18 turnovers, 18 points in the paint, 14 points off Gryphon turnovers, 13 second-chance points and had their bench score 11 points.
The Gryphs and Waterloo Warriors are tied for the lead in the OUA West with 13-7 records while Western and the Laurier Golden Hawks are tied for third with 11-9 records. Windsor Lancers are fifth at 9-11 and Algoma Thunderbirds are sixth at 3-16.
The Gryphs, who are assured of a playoff berth, are to finish their regular season with games against the Nipissing Lakers (3-17) Friday at 6 p.m. at North Bay and Laurentian Voyageurs (5-15) Saturday at 4 p.m. at Sudbury.
A win in one of those two games will give the Gryphs a home game in the preliminary round of the playoffs the following week. Guelph, Waterloo and McMaster Marauders are tied for sixth in the overall league standings. Top 12 qualify for the playoffs and the top four will get byes in the preliminary round and host quarter-final matches.
- Guelph Sports Journal