The Algonquin Thunder Women’s Basketball split their two away games, winning against Seneca College on Friday Nov. 4 and losing against Centennial College on Saturday Nov. 5.
However, Algonquin College had a robust home-debut against George Brow Huskies.
The Thunder held their George Brown Huskies to just four second chance points during their home-opener on Saturday, Oct. 29.
“When they shot the ball, we would box out,” Lauren Tebrake, Thunder guard, said. “We wouldn’t them get second chances.” Boxing out is a basketball action in which a player tries to deny another player from grabbing a rebound.
Numbers support Tebrake’s praise of their ability to box out.
George Brown Huskies was able to amass 56 per cent of defensive rebounds and the Thunder had 80 per cent.
Tebrake had eight defensive rebounds of her own. She offered a theory as to how she was able to get as many rebounds, despite the fact that she is a guard.
“By boxing my player out, not letting them to beat me to the ball,” she said. “That gave me more time to get to the ball.”
Grabbing the ball off the board is a focal point for the team, said assistant coach, Lindsay Kavanagh.
“Before every game, we put an emphasis on rebound,” Kavanagh said. “It’s a huge point we make during practice; we make sure the girls box out.”
The Thunder didn’t just dominate defensively, they also dominated offensively. The Thunder collected 26 of offensive rebounds and the Huskies only had 10 offensive rebounds.
Tebrake, who had seven offensive rebounds, said that the team capitalized off of a dormant defensive performance by the Huskies.
“They weren’t really boxing us out,” Tebrake said. “So I made sure to follow the shot and catch their defense off guard.”
Algonquin’s performance was dominant in the first half of the game. The team scored 48 points and held the Huskies to 30 points. This was something that Kavanagh was thrilled about.
“I think it was a good statement game,” Kavanagh said. “Fantastic result for the team.”
It was a sentiment shared by Tebrake.
“I think the game went really well,” she said. “We worked together as a team and practiced hard throughout the week.”
Tebrake also offered an explanation for how the team was able to dig a hole for the Huskies, a hole from which they were not able to come out.
“Brown has two key players on their team and our focus was to shut them down,” she said. “On defense, if one of those two players had the ball, then our help would be early. We did a good job containing those players and it made the rest of the team frustrated because they weren’t able to get any baskets.”
Despite being 18 points behind, the Huskies tried their best to make a comeback, scoring 41 points, but to no avail.
It was a comeback that Tebrake said exhaustion and excessive fouling were to blame.
“We were definitely tired and other players were in foul trouble,” she said. “So they were not on the court as much as we would like them to be.”
The lackluster performance in the second half worried Kavanagh.
“Scoring that much points show that we are okay offensively,” she said. “But getting score on that much shows that we need to work on our defense. Communication on defense is going to be our focus.”
A dominant first-half carried Algonquin Thunder
to victory. The final tally was 91-71 in favour of the Thunder.