KINGSTON, Ont. (February 10, 2017) - The Queen's Gaels women's basketball team suffered their first loss of the season on Friday night at the Athletics and Recreation Centre (ARC) in front of a boisterous crowd, dropping a 60-52 decision to the stingy Carleton Ravens.
 
Emily Hazlett scored a game-high 16 points in a losing cause for the Gaels (16-1), who were held to 52 points – a season low – by the top defence in the conference from Carleton (15-1). Queen's now joins the Ravens as the only two teams to have just a single loss to their name with two weekends left in conference play.
 
Hazlett shot 5-of-9 from the field, while Marianne Alarie (Sudbury, Ont.) added 11 points and four rebounds. Andrea Priamo (Guelph, Ont.) tallied eight points and a team-high eight boards for Queen's, who shot 31.7% (19-60) on the night.
 
Catherine Traer dropped 14 points in helping the Ravens hand Queen's its first conference loss.
 

MUST SEE - @abbydixon7 drains a three, gets a steal and an easy two! Gaels and @CURavens are live on https://t.co/9xTOznwjCF #GoGaelsGo pic.twitter.com/lcPbVnpva8

— #ChaGheill (@queensgaels) February 10, 2017

 
GAME FLOW
The nationally-ranked squads went at each other in the opening minutes of the contest, leading to eight turnovers before the first quarter hit the 7:00 minute mark. Two of the top defences in the conference went to work, forcing contested shots and errant passes from the other, leading to a stalled offence from both the Gaels and Ravens early on, as well as plenty of fouls.
 
Gemma Bullard took a hard hit at the top of the key, putting the fifth-year veteran on the line as the Ravens picked up their fifth foul just over halfway into the first quarter. Bullard (Elgin, Ont.) hit both her free-throws to give the hosts a 7-5 lead as both offences looked to find their legs.
 
Karyne Jolicoeur drained the game's first three-pointer to put the Ravens in front, and the visitors put together an 8-0 run late in the quarter. Abby Dixon (North Vancouver, B.C.) gave the Gaels a boost, however, sinking a three after some nifty dribbling to lose her defender. The fourth-year guard then picked up a quick steal on the ensuing Ravens inbounds, and turned it into a buzzer-beating lay-up to bring Queen's within a point of Carleton heading into the second.
 
The Ravens opened the middle stanza with five-straight points, while Hazlett picked up her second foul of the game within the first two minutes of the quarter, sending her to the bench for the remainder of the half.
 
The Gaels struggled with the length of the Carleton defenders throughout the half, but managed to string together six-straight points to cut the Raven lead to two. And after building their lead, the guests did not score again for the next six minutes. A timely three from Traer pushed the lead back-up to six.
 
Both teams shot 36.0% (9-25) from the field and committed 13 turnovers in the opening half.  
 
After sitting out the latter stages of the second quarter due to foul trouble, Hazlett (Fredericton, N.B.) looked energized coming out of the break, streaking for two points off a Ravens turnover. She followed that with two more buckets from the foul-line, pulling the Gaels within a basket of evening that match.
 
Traer continued to remain hot from the perimeter, however, hitting two more threes to extend the lead up to six. Hazlett persevered, using her speed to pick up four-straight points, the last two of which came off a contested running floater. The fifth-year senior continued to cause fits for the Ravens, hitting two more shots from the free-throw line to give the Gaels their first lead since the opening quarter, 40-39, at the end of the third.
 
Carleton answered with five quick points to begin the final quarter, re-taking a five-point advantage. Hazlett sunk a difficult jumper to bring the hosts within a point, and after a sustained amount of time where the ball remained in the Ravens' end of the court – two fouls, and a Raven turnover – Carleton managed to escape and add to their lead.
 
A key Gaels turnover coming out of a timeout led to another baseline lay-up from Elizabeth Leblanc, spreading the lead to five with three minutes remaining. Carleton pushed the lead up to nine at the 1:04 mark, giving themselves some breathing room and putting the contest out of the Gaels' reach.
 
FINAL SAY
"I'm disappointed, we know when we play Carleton it's going to be real hard to score against their set defence," said head coach Dave Wilson. "I was more upset with the amount of turnovers we had, primarily in the first half where we had 13. I thought we mishandled the ball a lot and made poor decisions about where to go with passes, and sometimes in breakouts. Their pressure kept us from getting good looks at the rim, but we also personally mishandled the basketball."
 
"We made a run in the third quarter, but it's tough to score against their defence and we just have to finish some of our shots. For the most part I was disappointed with our ball handling."
 
BY THE NUMBERS
16- Hazlett's 16 points is a season-high
19- Both team's hit 19 field goals on Friday night
45- Queen's (20) and Carleton (25) combined for 45 turnovers
 
UP NEXT
The Gaels conclude the weekend with a match-up against the Ottawa Gee-Gees on Saturday evening. Tip-off is set for 6:00 p.m., and the game can be seen live on OUA.tv. For ticket information visit www.gogaelsgo.com/tickets.