By Daniel Carrero
The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) women’s basketball team lost 55-52 against the Western Mustangs in a sloppy matchup at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC) on Wednesday night.
Despite taking a tie into the fourth quarter, the Bold’s struggles on offence caught up to them as they couldn’t seal the deal.
The Bold arrived at the clash after their first loss of the regular season at the hands of the Guelph Gryphons last week. The Mustangs got to the matchup aiming to build momentum after winning 70-51 against the Lakehead Thunderwolves last Saturday. Tonight, Western was the better team from the jump and came out with their first win against the Bold on home ground since 2017.
“The first feeling…it’s shitty, it sucks to lose like that,” said fourth-year guard Jayme Foreman.
The Bold tipped off the game attempting to gain control early in the first quarter, but their continuous passing errors slowed down the game, which only benefited the Mustangs.
Six minutes into the quarter, second-year guard Catrina Garvey flubbed a pass from TMU’s side of the court. Fourth-year winger Avarie Thomas grabbed possession quickly and laid a pass to third-year winger Emily Capretta, who scored from beyond the arc to give Western a 12-6 lead.
The Bold took the play as a wake-up call. Garvey found fifth-year guard Kallie Hall near the sideline, who drilled a three-pointer. From there the Bold went on to score eight unanswered points to then finish the quarter with a 19-15 advantage.
Heading into the second quarter, the story was the same—mishandles and failed passes held the Bold back from taking complete control of the game. Still, after back-and-forth attempts, Western seemed to have more control. The Mustangs’ full-court pressure invalidated any of TMU’s attempts to move the ball forward.
“Their pressure was good and it got us on our back foot, got us hesitant to be strong with the ball and hesitant to make passes,” said Foreman.
This, combined with the Mustang’s ineffectiveness to capitalize on their defensive efforts, meant a slow scoring quarter—the two teams combined for just 17 points. Still, the Mustangs were able to close down the gap to 26-25, the score still favouring the Bold.
Western improved their scoring attempts in the third quarter. Third-year winger Samantha Vidovic, fifth-year guard Kailey Reimer and second-year guard Paris Alexander scored three consecutive three-pointers, taking a chunk out of the Bold’s lead.
With the score at 36-38, head coach Carly Clarke called a timeout that worked at first, with second-year forward Hailey Franco-DeRyck grabbing an offensive rebound before sinking two points. Still, Western regrouped faster and tied the game at 40-40 at the end of the quarter.
With the fourth quarter meaning everything, the Bold started strong with a quick three-point lead. However, after Foreman missed a three-pointer opportunity, her frustration was visibly notable.
The guard finished the game hitting zero of her eight attempts from beyond the arc. Similarly, Garvey had only one successful three-pointer in seven attempts.
“We didn’t shoot well all game,” said Clarke. “I thought both [Garvey] and [Foreman] had some good looks…But when [shots] are not falling you start thinking about it.”
Foreman echoed the frustration from her role as a trusted shooter on the team.
“I am a shooter, and it’s like zero, I’m like ‘Jeez,’” said Foreman. “That’s something we need to work on in practice…shoot more in-game-like situations. Having to shoot more under pressure.”
Still, the Bold powered through their usual weapons mistakes with their defensive efforts, holding the Mustangs to a seven-point lead.
Franco-DeRyck finished the game with 18 total rebounds, 12 defensive rebounds, 11 points and four blocks, providing the Bold’s best performance of the night.
“She has been outstanding, defensively she’s super disruptive. She set a rebounding record in her first full year last year for a reason,” said Clarke about Franco-DeRyck. “Credit to her on having a pretty good game.”
Nevertheless, Thomas scored from inside the arc and after the Bold continued the play, Franco-DeRyck lost possession at mid-court, leading to another two points for Western. After a timeout from the Bold—that proved to be unsuccessful with the score tight at 52-51—Clarke called for yet another timeout that led to a do-or-die opportunity for the Bold.
“Me personally calling a timeout within [a one-point difference],” said Clarke. “It felt like we had an opportunity to put them away and didn’t quite control the game.”
After the timeout—and with 20 seconds remaining—the Bold placed all hope on Garvey on the wing, however, she ran out of time, forcing a turnover in Western’s favour. With the help of a foul and less than a second left, the Bold couldn’t catch up and the game ended at 55-52.
“It’s upsetting because we were so close…letting up in the last two minutes is disappointing,” said Franco-DeRyck.
UP NEXT: The Bold will have three days to recover before closing out a four-game homestand against the Windsor Lancers on Nov. 16. Tip-off is set at 4 p.m. at the MAC.
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