Thursday, February 4th 2010

By Brian Decker

BRIAN DECKER

SPORTS EDITOR

Taylor Smith has received accolades all season long for her performance on the court and her leadership off it. On Wednesday night, she entered the history books for a record that will give her accolades for the rest of her life.

Smith poured in 19 points in an 81-62 win over the Laurier Golden Hawks, with her first two buckets putting her past Chiara Rocca’s record of 1,211 career points.

“I’m honoured to be mentioned in the presence of great players like Chiara Rocca and, having the opportunity to play with [Rocca] and to see how great she was,” said Smith after the game.

“It’s just a credit to the players and the coaches I’ve had over these past five years.”

Smith’s contributions on the floor have played no small part in the Marauders’ success this season, with the team sporting an 11-6 record and sitting in third in the OUA West. The fifth year point guard is averaging 14.7 points as well as 7.4 assists, a stat which puts her at the top of the CIS

Equally important, however, has been the leadership Smith has provided for her young team, which includes four rookies playing major roles in the rotation. Having played a major role on two OUA Championship teams, Smith has a lot to share with her young teammates.

“[My job is] to teach them how to handle pressure, and how to relax at crunch time, just to take over and be confident in themselves. I think we’ve come a long way and we’re getting better at that.”

While the win over Laurier was a blowout from the first quarter and didn’t feature much pressure, Smith still did her fair share of teaching, adding 7 rebounds and 9 assists to her 19 points. Smith is also the Marauders’ all-time assists leader, having surpassed the 500 mark earlier this season on Jan. 20 against these same Golden Hawks.

“We really got after it defensively. We were in the lanes pressuring them and forcing them to do things they didn’t want to do… everything for us starts on the defensive end,” said Smith after the game.

The defensive tone was set by third year guard Rebecca Rewi, whose pressure on ball handlers has been outstanding all year.

“[Rebecca] has been an unsung hero in a lot of ways because she’s not always the leading scorer or rebounder, but she is by far the quickest player in the league. Her defensive intensity has been consistent all season,” said Head Coach Theresa Burns.

Rewi scored 12 points and recorded five steals in the game, while the Marauders got another solid performance from the frontcourt duo of Taylor Chiarot and Nicole Rosenkranz. Chiarot posted 14 points, while the rookie Rosenkranz scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds.

And while the win was absolutely a team effort, the night was about Smith and her contributions to the team.

“I couldn’t be happier for a nicer person or a better player,” said Burns, who coached both of Smith’s championship teams.

“She’s been everything for us for her entire career… she’s the consummate team leader and the ultimate point guard. We’re very lucky that she spent five years here with us.”

The win moves the Marauders to 11-6 on the season, in third place in the OUA West. But while things have been great at home this season, the Marauders have had trouble in road games this season, a common storyline in McMaster’s losses.

“We like our home gym. We’re very comfortable here and we get great fan support. I think all of these players have grown up in the area and played in this gym so many times that you just can’t mimic the comfort level anywhere else,” said Burns.

The signs of trouble in away games were on display this weekend in a 57-54 loss to the struggling 3-13 Waterloo Warriors. On Saturday, the Marauders shot themselves in the foot from the field and foul line on the way to the loss to the Warriors, who came into the game just 2-13 on the season. Still, Burns was optimistic about the way the team played in spite of the disappointing result.

“I don’t think we played down [to the Warriors] at all… I think we worked hard and managed a lot of parts of the game, we shot ourselves in the foot on the foul line.”

McMaster made just 8 of 19 free throws, and missed a number of shots from close range. Running plays in the deep post for Rosenkranz and Milligan, who sported a significant size advantage over the undersized Warriors, the Marauders could get nearly any look they wanted, but could not put the ball in the net to close the deal.

McMaster missed eight consecutive free throws in the fourth quarter, where the lead was consistently up for grabs.

“In any game, that’s gonna kill you, but in a close game… take any two or three of those back and it’s a whole different game,” said Burns.

The loss represents a concerning trend, with the team having lost to some of the lowlier squads in the OUA West. Still, Burns isn’t concerned with working the trend into the team’s game plan.

“Every team can win on any given night, and our approach to every game is the same. We want to work as hard as we possibly can, and I felt like we really did work hard [against Waterloo]. We just didn’t shoot the ball well and it didn’t pan out.”

Huge division match ups await this coming week, as Mac travels to Brock and Western to duke it out for playoff seeding.