It was a 26-22 Concordia Stinger half time lead and the Lady Bees played as hard as they could. M.J Raposo changed from her ‘head down and drive’ style to a pull-up shooter for 13 points. Pascale Morin showed no signs of a bad ankle as she twisted and turned her way inside for 15 points. Jennifer Neill was made her presence felt with 12 points of her own.
The defence, too, kept the Gaiters ‘out there’ beyond the three-point line because the Stinger defence was locked up the inside, but it wasn’t enough to out do the Bishops Gaiters team who moved on to the QSSF final by defeating Concordia 68-59.
“We played as hard as we could,” said Head Coach Keith Pruden. “We played our best defence of the year.” No one could argue with that.
The Bishops Gaiters went three for 17 from the three-point line, including a frenzy of seven straight misses in the last two minutes.
It was clear that the Gaiters game plan was to be ahead of the Stingers at the half.
“We had two injuries early in the game,” Gaiter Head Coach Rod Gilpin explained.
“We had to play with more guards and it took a little time to make that adjustment. Trailing by four points at the half wasn’t bad at all,” he added.
Adding more guards made the game quicker, but the Gaiter run of nine and a few minutes later of six in the second half could not be attributed to Gaiter quickness.
“We are a quicker team,” Pruden said. “What we did was slow down to the point of watching. My team has a tendency of watching the game go by.”
In fact, the Stinger Fort Knox defence of the first half turned into an open house.
Possession after possession, the Gaiter squad gave up on threes because the baseline became the Stinger welcome mat.
Toss in a few six-foot pull ups, several offensive rebounds, and for good measure a three here and there, and the game began to slip away from the women.
The women hung in there. With 4:19 remaining and trailing 60-46, a tired Morin weaved and twisted along the baseline for a couple and Raposo hit a much needed three as the team came within five. Too bad, but the Stingers were in foul trouble.
Despite the late rally attempt by the Stingers their opponents were able to the lock up the win by capitalizing from the foul line to finish the game. Their efforts were fruitless, and the Lady Bees ended their season with a 68-59 loss.
