The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks’ women’s basketball team continued their slow start to the season over the weekend, earning their first win of the year over the Royal Military College (RMC) Paladins on Friday, but following it with a loss to the Queen’s Gaels on Saturday.
“I think we showed that we’re not playing at the level where we’d like to be just yet,” said head coach Paul Falco. “We were really looking to get two wins this weekend, but we realize that it’s still early and we can easily get back on track.”
In their home-opener on Friday night, the Hawks dominated a winless Paladins team on their way to a 74-43 blow-out win. Veteran Renata Adamczyk led the way for the Hawks with 14 points, four rebounds and two assists.
“We definitely did some good things against RMC and took care of business against a weaker team,” said Falco. “We managed to force a lot of turnovers, we closed down their perimeter shooting very well and we were much more composed with the basketball than we had been in our previous two games.”
On Saturday, the purple and gold were looking to even their record at 2-2, but they ran into a talented Gaels team who came away with a 71-59 win. The Hawks were unable to hold a lead throughout the game as they were inefficient on offence and lost the rebounding battle, leading to the Gaels eventually pulling away.
“What it comes down to is we need to make smarter decisions when we have a lead,” said Falco. “We would make runs and take the lead, but then hurt ourselves by turning the ball over or making a mental mistake on defence leading to an easy basket. Those kind of things really kill momentum and we’ll have to get them corrected if we want to be able to maintain our leads.”
The Gaels were spurred by a stand-out game from veteran Erin Skippon, who put up a game-high 22 points, as well as nine rebounds and five steals in the win.
The Hawks look to get back on track this Friday when they travel to Ottawa to take on the Carleton Ravens.
“Carleton’s always a tough match-up,” said Falco. “They’re a really strong rebounding team so it’ll be a good challenge for us to control the boards and get some easy baskets off rebounds.”
