Out Like a Light

Women Season Ends in Semi-Finals

SportsAndrew Maggio — Published March 10, 2012

The Concordia Stingers women’s basketball team was unable to pull off an upset against the number-one seed Regina Cougars and fell 73-60 in the semi-final game of the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Western Regionals in Saskatoon Friday night.

The loss signals an end to a promising, yet disappointing season.

“We were nervous, and it showed early,” said Stingers head coach Keith Pruden on the CIS website. “Credit Regina, they are a very good team and played well, we had a lot of good looks but we just couldn’t capitalize. I was very happy with the effort we put in tonight.”

Stingers MVP Kaylah Barrett had a huge night, scoring 34 points while adding nine rebounds, accounting for more than half the team’s scoring. Her excellent performance was not enough to carry the Stingers past outstanding play from the Regina squad, however, or match the powerful trio of Joanna Zalesiak, Michelle Clark and Lindsey Ledingham.

Anne-Marie Prophete was the only other Stinger to crack double-digits in scoring, putting up 11 points coming off the bench.

“Once we found out we were playing the number one ranked team in the country, Regina, we knew we had our work cut out for us,” said Barrett, who was also named the Quebec Conference’s season MVP.

“Both teams played hard but Regina came out with the win. We kept the first place team to 13 points, which is amazing for a team that was not ranked. We put up a good effort and can only grow from this experience.”

The Cougars got out to a 16-8 lead by the end of the first quarter and never looked back as the Stingers struggled to keep up, shooting only 26 per cent from the floor and only 18 per cent from three-point range.

The Stingers scored 23 points in the fourth quarter in an effort to mount a comeback, but it was too little, too late, as Regina held on to move to the regional finals against Brock University on Saturday night.

Despite the early exit, the Stingers are optimistic looking to the future.

“These regional’s were a good experience for the Stingers, we have to keep in mind that we are a young team overall,” said veteran forward Andreanne Gregoire Boudreau. “This tournament gave the girls a taste of what is expected out of us to succeed beyond the RSEQ.

“Regional’s were quite the experience, especially going in as the underdogs against the number one ranked team,” said guard Ashley Clarke. “This may be the end for this year but we now know what to work on over the summer and how much work needs to be put in order to win a championship.”