The Briercrest Women’s basketball team hosted two teams this weekend in their homestand.  Friday night saw the Grand Prairie Wolves come to town sporting an identical record to Briercrest through six games. The game opened up as expected, evenly matched. Briercrest was down by 5 points after the first quarter, but came out strong in the second, Shehana Woodland hit dropped 7 points in three consecutive possessions, hitting a three ball and two long jumpers. Some nice rebounding from Claire Richardson would cut the lead to only two points but the Wolves tightened up their defense and ended the half ahead by ten points.

I don’t know what was said in the dressing room at the half but the Women came out and played their most impressive quarter of basketball all year. With some phenomenal defense including a pair of steals from Brooke Olmstead, blocks from both Richardson and Val Robinson and an offensive push spread across the board the Clippers would dominate the quarter scoring 17 points and holding the Wolves to a single basket to take a 42-37 lead into the fourth quarter. Unfortunately they couldn’t sustain the momentum through the final quarter and Grand Prairie would end up taking the game 63-53.

Saturday saw a tougher opponent in the Nait Ooks visit The Hangar, and they took it to Briercrest early and built an 11-1 lead. The women would push back, with Janelle Threlfall finishing a nice passing play for the basket plus 1. The Briercrest defense would tighten up as well, and after running the shot clock out on Nait for a turnover, Keely Weigum would drop a 3 at the other end of the court. With a buzzer beater shot from downtown, Amber Durocher would add 3 more to cut the Nait lead down to four points, finishing off a 10-4 Briercrest run. This momentum would carry over at the start of the second quarter quickly tying the game at 16. Nait would respond by putting a full court press on, creating some turnovers and retaking the lead. The Clips would adjust though and start breaking the press with some great passing, Abby Sherstan would feed Meghan Carr for two of her seven points on the day, and the Ooks would take an 8 point lead into the half.

In the second half, Weigum would hit her second three of the day, and after a steal and quick break, Robinson would feed Threlfall and Briercrest was only down by 5. Nait would respond with a time out and running two set plays on their next two possessions to hit two threes and stretch their lead back over ten before the end of the 3rd. In the fourth Briercrest would come out fighting and keep the game close but eventually the Ooks would take charge. Janelle Threlfall would earn player of the game honours with 18 points and 8 rebounds. The final score was 64-49 Nait.

Two tough decisions for the women this weekend on two games that saw some great playing