By Dave Smith
Judging by the score alone, Ryerson’s women’s basketball team won its final game in its weekend preseason tournament. But when it comes to body count, the Rams took a huge loss.
When the final buzzer sounded to signal Ryerson’s 58-54 win over the York Yeowomen in the game for the seventh place Sunday, the Rams had just two players on the bench who weren’t injured.
The most notable player who suffered injuries was OUA all-star guard Miruna Muller. During Ryerson’s second tournament game against the McMaster Marauders Saturday, Muller fell on her left ankle.
“It’s a bad sprain,” the fourth-year social work student said. “I can’t tell you when I will be back, but hopefully next weekend.”
To make matters worse, Muller’s fellow guard Treisha Hylton took an elbow to the mouth on Sunday against York and had to sit out the rest of the game with her mouth full of cotton. Fortunately for the team, she was still able to practice Monday night.
Fourth-year forward Eva Ain also collided heavily with a Yeowomen player Sunday. Since Ryerson couldn’t to lose another player, she got bandaged during a time-out and returned to play the rest of the game.
Normally, head coach Sandra Pothier would expect to beat a team such as York, which missed the OUA East Division playoffs last year. Considering the rash of injuries the Rams received Pothier was thrilled the team still pulled off a win.
“I’m proud of my team,” she said. “There were a number of injuries and some players were forced to play positions that were unnatural to them.”
The Rams mounted a comeback to win their third final game. It started with a few minutes of play left, when freshman forward Crystal Dickson hit at here-pointer to cut York’s lead to two. Not long after, Dickson and fellow rookie Tamara Alleyne-Gittens each hit a pair of free throw to clinch the victory.
The Rams could have used a few more of those clutch shots in their previous games.
On Friday, the Rams opened the tournament with a 76-47 loss to the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds. UBC, the defending champions, went on to place second in the tournament, losing to the University of Victoria in the final.
Once shifted into the loser’s bracket, the Rams lost to McMaster 65-59 Friday, earning them their date with the Yeowomen.
York can avenge its loss to the Rams when the teams battle in an OUA regular-season game, Friday, Nov. 10 in Kerr gym.
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