GUELPH, Ont. – For a fourth consecutive season, the Guelph Gryphons women's basketball team has booked their spot in the OUA quarterfinals. Wednesday night (Feb. 19) from the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre, the Gryphons erased an 11-point deficit and completed a 71-56 comeback victory over the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks in the opening round of the 2025 OUA women's basketball playoffs. The Gryphons, who entered the 12-team OUA playoff field as the No. 6-seed, needed some 4th quarter magic, outscoring the No. 11-seeded Golden Hawks 25-7 in the final quarter to pull away for the 15-point win.
 
The opening round playoff matchup was much closer than the final score indicated as Laurier gave Guelph all they could handle on home court as the visitors had a 49-38 with 1:56 left in the 3rd quarter. The Gryphons needed a spark on the floor facing their largest deficit of the game and they were able to get one from Delaney Cortes. With her team trailing by 11 off the heels of an 8-0 Laurier run, the second-year guard made one of the biggest baskets of the game when she stepped up from three and calmly got it to fall. The three from Cortes kickstarted the Gryphon run as they would close out the quarter with an 8-0 run of their own to trail the Golden Hawks 49-46 heading into the 4th quarter. With the Gryphons holding a slim 56-55 advantage, Julia Colavecchia was able to split the defence and score on a layup to give her side a three-point lead with 6:18 left in the 4th. From that point forward, Guelph would ride the momentum outscoring the Golden Hawks 15-1 the rest of the way as the Gryphons were able to pull away for the 71-56 win. It was Guleph's suffocating defence that turned the tide in this one, holding Laurier to only 7 points in the final quarter on 2-10 shooting from the field as they outscored the visitors 25-7 in the 4th.
 
The Gryphons were led by senior guard Renee Armstrong who had a phenomenal game, leading the team with 22 points including making all 11 of her free throws to go along with her 8 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals. Senior guard Julia Colavecchia had herself a big game, scoring 18 points, including four three pointers and Alexa Wright was the other Gryphon to finish in double figures with 13 points.
 
With the win, the Gryphons advance to the OUA quarterfinals on Saturday (Feb. 22), where they will travel to Windsor to face the Windsor Lancers. Windsor finished the regular season with a 18-4 record and enter the OUA playoffs as the No. 3-seed. Tip off in Windsor on Saturday night is set for 6pm at the Toldo Lancer Centre and will be streamed live online at www.oua.tv. The winner of the Gryphons-Lancers game will advance to the OUA semifinals, to face the winner of Queen's and Ottawa.