The Algonquin Thunder showed no rust in a dominating 71-24 victory over the Georgian Grizzlies on Nov. 23, making it their sixth win in a row out of seven total games for the season.
Hadeza Ismaila, forward, led the Thunder with 13 points, while Arianna Gagnon and Sylvie Strong, guard, followed closely behind with 12 points each.
Coach Jamie McLean said he is happy with the performance of the team, despite it not being their best performance overall.
“The big focus going into the next couple of weeks is communication,” said McLean. “We’re really not talking well enough on the ball and away from the ball.”
Despite the lack of communication between team members, the Thunder quickly took control in the first quarter with a score of 21-4. They soon added 15 points in the second quarter to secure a 36-11 lead into halftime.
The Thunder enlarged their already commanding lead to 55-18 in the third quarter thanks to a suffocating defence which held the Grizzlies to just seven points for that quarter.
With the outcome already decided, the Thunder outscored the Grizzlies 16-6 in the fourth quarter, securing Algonquin to a third place seat against all Ontario colleges.
The team’s success in the future playoffs relies on whether or not the Thunder can grow towards a more effective line of communication.
“It’s going to be a big factor as we grow as a team if we wanna go towards the championship we have to do that,” said McLean. “The better teams do it and they’ll gonna start to kill us if we aren’t.”