By: Laura Clementson
Although it was a successful weekend, the women’s basketball team did not walk away from the court feeling completely satisfied.
The first road trip of the season brought home two wins maintaining their undefeated season.
The first game took Algonquin to Georgian College in Barrie where the Thunder pulled off an 83-52 win.
The general sentiment after game was they should have won by more.
“Friday was probably one of our worst games yet,” said Trish Grey, one of the captains.
“We should have beat them by a lot more. We went in there thinking this shouldn’t be an issue and they actually kind of gave us a run for our money. We’re pretty disappointed, but in the end we got the win,” she said.
“We won by 30, don’t get me wrong, it was a good game, but we didn’t execute the game plan,” said Abeer Farhat, one of the other captains.
“It was a very good individual defensive effort, but as a team, we didn’t communicate well and we weren’t really there so that was a big focus throughout the game,” she continued.
“We kind of got off to a really slow start defensively,” said assistant coach Laura Bond.
“We let them score a lot more points than we wanted them to score. But offensively we executed really well and we ended up winning by quite a bit,” she said.
The second game of the weekend against George Brown in Toronto was a different story according to Farhat.
She attributes the win to a strong, high-intensity start with communication and stout energy from the bench.
“It felt like a playoff game for us more than anything,” Farhat said.
“It was probably the best game of consistent basketball we’ve played all year. For the first time all year I think we really connected as a unit. Everything just came together this game and it showed us how much potential we really have when we play together.”
The same feelings resonated with Grey.
“George Brown’s game was a completely different game, probably our best game actually,” she said.
“We finally clicked as a team. We destroyed them.”
Farhat said she thought the first road trip of the season was a success for the team.
“We were all obviously hyped. There’s nothing better than going away and destroying a team in their own home gym.
“Obviously winning those first four home games were important too, but it’s more of a challenge when you go on the road in a gym that you’re not used to, [with] their fans. I think that we did a really good job at adjusting,” said Farhat.
Bond said the team spent time on the bus holding one-on-one sessions with each player to get a feel as to where they were at.
“Overall I think that we’re continuing to improve. Our practices are getting more and more competitive. We look at game tapes after every weekend and we look on areas to improve and we focus on that to make sure that we’re always getting better,” said Bond.
“We’ve had a lot of blow-out games and we just need to make sure that we’re prepared for a close game and that we’re ready to win it,” said Bond.