Tonight the Briercrest women’s basketball team squared off against the Medicine Hat College Rattlers. Briercrest looks to start a winning streak here in the late first semester regular season. Medicine Hat coming in from the middle of the southern standings looking to improve their record by two additional wins. Both teams came in tonight prepared to compete for 40 minutes.

In the first quarter, Briercrest met Medicine Hat with speed and fire. Defensively, Nicole Chenard did a terrific job getting quick stops at the top of Briercrest’s 1-3-1 zone. The girls pushed the ball well against a strong Medicine Hat man-to-man press, penetrating and passing well down the floor. Running into slight foul trouble, Briercrest finished the quarter down 19-18 to the Rattlers despite a consistently intense quarter.

With a surge of three point shots to begin the second quarter from the Rattlers, Briercrest fell behind quickly. What kept them competing was their ability to penetrate and dish well in the half court, predominantly by Tracy Frimpong and Brooke Olmstead. Medicine Hat proved to fight back, scoring well from inside and capitalizing on small mistakes on the side of Briercrest. Ultimately, it was Briercrest’s lack of aggression defensively that led the Rattlers pushing their lead to 39-24 at half.

The third quarter began similar to the second, both teams legging behind in the stereotypical third quarter slump. However, Megan Getz for the Rattlers obtained a few more quick threes and sent Medicine Hat on an offensive run against Briercrest. Prominent players in the third for Briercrest were Amy Wanvig, getting to the free throw line consistently as well as Olmstead continuing to assert her driving presence on the offensive end. The third quarter ended with a score of 58-31 for Medicine Hat.

Fourth quarter play saw a lot more intensity from both teams. Offensively, Briercrest passed well around the perimeter, opening themselves up for better shot opportunities. Along with more intense defensive play, Briercrest’s tempo remained a lot higher. Despite this, Medicine Hat came away with an overall game win of 71-47.

Players of the game were for MHC Megan Getz and for Briercrest Amy Wanvig. Both players did exceptional jobs playing with strength, intensity and integrity this evening. Wanvig had a game high 10 rebounds, and 19 points, shot 7-7 from free-throw line and had one block and one steal.

Briercrest led statistically tonight on the fronts of blocking, obtaining dour to Medicine Hat’s two. Briercrest also played a much cleaner game, fouling five less times than the Rattlers, therefore allowing themselves to get the line more as well.

Tracy Frimpong had a team high three assists, and a game high two blocks and Nicole Chenard had a game high three steals.

The Briercrest women’s team takes on the Rattlers again tomorrow at 1pm in the Hangar.

If you can’t make it to the next game be sure to watch online at acac.tv.

For up to date information on the Briercrest basketball team, “like” the Briercrest Basketball facebook page.