GUELPH, Ont. – Friday night at the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre, the Gryphons women's basketball team suffered a 74-52 loss to the visiting Queen's Gaels. The Gaels, who improved to 9-1 with the win, outscored the Gryphons by a combined 24 points over the course of the 2nd and 3rd quarters. With the loss, the Gryphons fall to 5-5 on the season and see their three-game win streak come to an end. Gryphons rookie guard
Burke Bechard finished with a team-high 16 points while
Haley Belyk (12 points) and
Megan Brenkel (10 points) also scored in double figures for the Gryphs.
"It's important that we remain positive with each other and with what we're doing," said Gryphons' head coach
Mark Walton. "Defensively, we saw some really good things tonight, but we weren't able to capitalize at the other end of the floor. But we forced 32 turnovers tonight against a really good Queen's team."
Helping lead the way for the Gryphons defensively was fourth year guard Haley Belyk who finished with a team-high 4 steals. The Gryphons finished the night plus-11 in the turnover battle, but the rebound-battle was where the Gaels were able to dominate.
Gryphons rookie guard Burke Bechard
Queen's out-rebounded Guelph 50-24 on the night and had a 15-6 edge in offensive rebounds.
After a tight opening quarter which ended with the teams tied at 17-17, Queen's would pull away in the 2nd quarter, outscoring Guelph 22-8 to take a 14-point lead into the locker room at the half. The Gaels' lead would grow in the 3rd quarter after the Gaels outscored Guelph 21-11. Over the course of the 2nd and 3rd quarters, the Gaels shot 60% from the field. Overall, Queen's finished the night shooting an impressive 49% (31-63) from the floor and 50% from beyond the arc (6-12). The Gryphons were limited to 29% from the floor on 19-64 shooting.
Friday night's game wrapped up the 2017 portion of the Gryphons' schedule. The Gryphs will go into the exam/Christmas break tied for 5th in the nine-team OUA West Division. The Gryphons will resume their OUA regular season schedule in early January when they head to Thunder Bay for back-to-back games with the Lakehead Thunderwolves on January 5 & 6.
