First half of season nearing end

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The 2015-16 season had a strong start for the McMaster Women’s Basketball team. A perfect pre-season and a No. 1 spot in the country was something novel to a young team that has had to fight for a seat amongst strong contenders.

With a current ranking of sixth in the country’s top ten list, there is still a lot of time in the season to get back to the top spot.

This past weekend is a telling sign of the team’s continuous learning process.

The team went on the road to play Queen’s and York. They came back home with a win and a loss.

Friday’s game had the Marauders getting back on the bus with a 53-60 loss to the Queen’s Gaels. It was a low scoring game for the Marauders, something that fans are not used to seeing. McMaster’s leading scorer was guard Danielle Boiago, who added 13 points on the board. Shooting the ball did not go well that night for the Marauders as they only made 30 percent of their shots from the floor.

“We look at numbers because stats don’t lie. For the team, everybody’s numbers have to be better. We look at it to see what else we need to work on,” said interim Head Coach Anne Marie Thuss.

After Saturday’s win at York, there is no doubt that the team is constantly learning from their losses and their mistakes.

There was no time for repeating the same mistakes as the Marauders played back-to-back games this past weekend. Friday’s loss to Queen’s prepared the team very well for the dominating win at York’s home court the following day.

The performance was greater for McMaster as they ruled over York and came out with a 86-45 win on Saturday evening. The end of the first quarter saw the Marauders hold a 30-point lead over the York Lions as the score after the first quarter was 32-2. It was McMaster’s game right from the jump ball.

Boiago put up 24 points, the leading scorer of the weekend.

The team improved their field goal percentage to 47.

“This team scores in a multitude of ways. It’s not just being fast in transition, it’s not just one player hitting shots. They all contribute and they all will contribute even more as the season goes on. They are very unselfish players and let the offense run through and then you’ll see fantastic and entertaining plays,” said Thuss.

The Guelph Gryphons will visit Burridge Gym on Sat. Nov. 28 as the Marauders will look to hold a two-game winning streak before the student athletes go on their holiday break away from regular season play.

This break will give the players some mental time to prepare for the second half of the season, and to continue to improve their game play in their pursuit of an OUA banner.

The team will have over a month away from games until they return for basketball action on Jan. 13, 2016 when they head to Waterloo.

Photo Credit: Tina Chatterjee

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