KINGSTON, Ont. - The Queen's Gaels and Ottawa Gee-Gees may have met last Friday in the regular season, but the two teams will duke it out once again this Saturday at 6 pm at the ARC Main Gym in the second round of OUA playoffs.

The Gaels received a bye in the opening round having finished as the second seed in the OUA East division. For Ottawa, they began their playoff journey on Wednesday with an opening round 73-50 victory over Toronto. Brigitte Lefebvre-Okankwu led the way with 17 points and 11 rebounds in the Gee-Gees victory.

LAST FRIDAY
The two teams met last Friday in Ottawa with the Gaels needing a win to lock down a bye in the playoffs while the Gee-Gees were hoping to take the bye spot themselves.

The Gaels came out with a big second quarter outscoring Ottawa 20-12 and taking a 32-25 lead. A balanced attack in the second half led by seven points from Emma Ritcey and four steals by Abby Dixon secured the Gaels the 63-50 win securing the bye for Queen's.

CAN HOME TEAM WIN
The two teams met twice this season during the regular season, and it was the road team winning each time. On January 13, the Gee-Gees came to Kingston and won 61-53 behind a strong second-quarter themselves where they outscored Queen's 27-11. Amelie Hachey scored 19 points to lead Ottawa and Queen's shot just 28.1% from the floor.

The Gaels then took care of business in Ottawa last weekend giving each team a road victory in the season series.

The Gaels finished with an 8-4 record at the ARC while Ottawa was 8-4 on the road this season. Queen's won just two of their last six home games to close out the regular season.

ROOKIE STANDOUTS
Brigitte Lefebvre-Okankwu was one the best rookies in the OUA this season as she averaged 12.3 points and 6.8 rebounds leading the Gee-Gees in both categories. Lefebvre-Okankwu also started in 20 of her 21 games played this year. 

She led the Gee-Gees with 17 points and 11 rebounds in Wednesday's win but struggled in her lone game against Queen's last Friday with just four points on 1-7 shooting.

For the Gaels, rookie standout Sophie de Goede has been a leader on the glass for averaging a team-best 7.0 rebounds per game while also putting up 9.9 points per game, the third best for the Gaels.

De Goede played 19 minutes last Friday finishing with four points and seven rebounds for the Gaels in their win over Ottawa. In their January meeting, de Goede scored 10 points and added three rebounds in 19 minutes.

STEALING A WIN
Queen's and Ottawa have been two of the better defensive teams this season in the OUA with Ottawa allowing 56.8 points per game and the Gales just behind at 57.7, good for third and fourth in the conference.

The Gaels have been lead by defensive stalwart Abby Dixon who lead the OUA with 3.5 steals per game and was followed by Marianne Alarie who averaged 2.1 good for a tie for ninth. 

The Gee-Gees saw a pair of top 10 steals leaders in Brooklynn McAlear-Fanus and Amelie Hachey who finished with 2.2 and 2.1 steals per game respectively good for eighth and ninth.

Whichever teams defence can put in a 40 minute performance should take the win Saturday.