By Mitchell Fox
With a second-half surge and lockdown defence, the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold women’s basketball team defeated the Brock Badgers 72-53 in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC), advancing to the Critelli Cup semi-finals.
With the win, the Bold move on to play the Carleton Ravens, the top team in the country who beat the McMaster Marauders 98-45 on Saturday. They will look to defeat past demons, having been eliminated in the semi-finals back-to-back years since winning the 2022 U Sports championship.
“[I am] really just proud of our process tonight, excited about where this team’s going and our potential,” said graduate guard Kaillie Hall. “I think we’re really coming together at the right time.”
The Badgers beat the Laurentian Voyageurs 81-72 in their round one match up on Wednesday, rolling in with confidence. Nevertheless, the Bold were ready to beat a familiar foe in head coach Shae Dheensaw—who joined the Badgers after serving as an assistant coach with the Bold from 2021-2024. With the win, the Bold ended Brock’s playoff hopes for the third time in the last four years, including at the same stage last year.
“They’ve become one of the top teams in the conference. We’ve been there, so we’ve seen them a bunch,” said Bold head coach Carly Clarke. “You’re familiar and you’re competitive. But it’s playoff time, it’s win or go home.”
Hall got the scoring started, following up a steal with a layup and a foul shot to finish the and-one play. However, the Badgers took control of momentum from there, starting a 10-0 run with the help of tight defence and relentless drives to the basket. Following some foul trouble for the Bold, Clarke called a needed timeout.
“Brock came out really ready, fired up. We expected that,” said Clarke. “We just needed to settle in. We were playing a little fast on offence.”
The Badgers kept rolling as fourth-year guard/forward Madalyn Weinert brought distance shooting into the equation with the first three-pointer of the game, bringing the score to 13-5. Weinert finished the regular season well on top of the OUA in points per game with 21.8, making defending her a point of focus for the Bold from the get-go.
Fourth-year guard Jayme Foreman and second-year forward Hailey Franco-DeRyck kept the Bold deficit in single digits with a pair of layups to make the score 16-11, giving the home side a dose of momentum at the end of the first quarter.
Fourth-year forward Haley Fedick added another layup to bring the Bold within three points early in the second, but Brock had no interest giving the lead away at that point.
The Badgers continued to move the ball through Weinert and fifth-year guard Angeline Campbell as they increased their lead early in the second frame. Weinert used her defensive capabilities to keep the Bold at bay and make room for her teammates to score, helping Brock mount their biggest lead of the game at 26-14.
Then, the Bold came roaring back. After second-year guard Catrina Garvey sunk the Bold’s first three-pointer of the game to make the score 26-19, the Badgers went out of bounds and Dheensaw called a timeout, subbing out Weinert and Campbell.
With the Badgers top players off the court, the Bold mounted a 15-0 run—a three-pointer by Garvey gave the Bold back their lead, then a surprising deep two-point jumper by graduate forward Callie Wright epitomized the Bold’s burgeoning confidence to complete the run.
“We were here every day, and so we might as well let our hard work show off. we have 40 minutes to do that…put it all on the court, because that’s our one chance,” said Franco-DeRyck.
Weinert came back into the game and made an immediate impact with a layup, but the Bold had no intentions of giving the lead back. Third-year forward Jessica Keripe earned her first points of the game with a layup plus the foul shot to finish off the half on a high note at 32-28.
Brock and Weinert continued scoring early in the third quarter, namely from the free throw line. Her defence was also a factor, as she finished the game leading in points with 18, rebounds with 13, blocks with four and steals with six. Most of that impact, however, was seen in the first half—the Bold kept her quiet as the game went on.
“I thought Hall in particular, but our guards put incredible pressure on their guards, which made it difficult for [Weinert] to get the ball,” said Clarke. ”Franco-DeRyck and Keripe did an amazing job as the primary matchups on her today, just making her work super hard.”
The game remained close as the teams traded three-point plays. Foreman, Garvey and Campbell each sunk three-pointers while Hall continued to drive hard to the basket, force fouls and sink the extra point.
The Badgers tied the game at 45 with fourth-year forward Olivia Forucci’s first points of the game on a jump shot assisted by Weinert. That only seemed to invigorate the Bold, as they elicited stringent defence and no-questions-asked offence.
After Keripe hit a foul shot to keep the Bold in the lead, Foreman kept things going with a basket off the glass from well beyond the arc, making the score 49-45.
The Bold offence was created by a lot more than the three-ball, however. Hall kept things rolling with a quick dash to the basket and finger roll. The Bold finished the game with a 32-14 advantage in points in the paint, which Garvey and Franco-DeRyck attributed to answering the Badgers’ double-team defence and constant switching.
“I think the strong suit for our team is that we have drivers and shooters,” said Franco-DeRyck. “Just waiting that extra second for them to get back out and make the link more clear, I think is what we did better in the second half.”
Nevertheless, a confusing foul call against Wright sent Weinert to the line once again to close out the quarter at 53-49 in favour of the Bold.
Those would be the only points on the board for Weinert or the Badgers for a while. The Bold started off the fourth quarter with an extra sense of duty, spurred by defence.
“Our team defence has been a big part of our identity all year, and that showed up today,” said Clarke.
Foreman hit her third three-pointer of the game with another shot off the glass to open the scoring, winding up the Bold.
TMU forced Badgers other than Campbell and Weinert to shoot, often off-balance thanks to their relentless work in the paint. They also dominated on the glass, grabbing four offensive rebounds and 10 defensive rebounds in the quarter as they restricted the Badgers’ time with the ball. The Bold ended the game with 47 rebounds to the Badgers’ 39.
“When the going gets tough, just like circling back to [defensive structure], focusing on one-on-one matchups, and then ultimately, being there to support each other has been a huge thing,” said Hall.
The Badgers were not happy with the referees as the quarter went on. The Bold got into the five-foul advantage less than four minutes in, while TMU had not been called for a team foul yet in the frame. Dheensaw was awarded a technical foul after she yelled at the referee.
Brock created their own issues too, hitting just one of their previous 15 shots at that point. The Bold didn’t hesitate for a second, continuing the onslaught up to a 20-point lead snagged with a three-pointer by Garvey.
The Bold brought their bench into the game in the final minute, as third-year guard Alex Pino and fourth-year forward Lauryn Meek got a taste of playoff action. Campbell got the Badgers their first points of the quarter with a layup with a minute to go, over 12 minutes after their last field goal.
“Defence has been our [Modus Operandi],” she said. “That’s who we want to be as a team, and that gives us energy and turns into offence. So it’s great to see you know that reached its peak in the last quarter.”
Weinert got the last word with a foul shot as the last scoring play, but the story of the game was snatched from her by the Bold defence. A coordinated effort and a strong finish brought them a 72-53 victory and a trip to the semi-finals, where they will face an even bigger challenge in the form of the defending champion, the Ravens.
“This group’s super motivated to really compete, compete with the best, be a part of the best,” said Hall. “Our program has also been super successful. I think there’s a lot of pride in that, wanting to play for the people who have been successful before us, for the next group of people who will play here. There’s a lot of pride around what we do and our process.”
UP NEXT: The Bold head to the Ravens’ Nest to face the Carleton Ravens in the Critelli Cup semi-finals. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.
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