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Above: Members of the York Lions women’s basketball team celebrate their OUA East title win Saturday at York’s Tait McKenzie Centre |
The York Lions women’s basketball team claimed the Ontario University Athletics East title for the second consecutive year on Saturday, with a 65-41 win over the Queen’s Golden Gaels at York’s Tait McKenzie Centre.
With the victory, the Lions advance to the OUA Championship to face the third-ranked McMaster Marauders and are guaranteed a berth in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport National Championship, March 9-11 in St. John’s, Nfld.
The Lions travel to Hamilton this Sunday to take on McMaster after the Marauders beat the Guelph Gryphons 66-41 in the OUA West Final. The tip-off is scheduled for at 8pm at McMaster’s Burridge Gym.
York’s Brenan Rurak was named the game MVP after scoring a game-high 16 points and grabbing six rebounds on 6-of-10 shooting. Lions guard Elspeth Cheng also registered a game-high 16 points, while adding five assists and four rebounds. Providing the spark off the bench was Emily Van Hoof who registered 10 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Left: Brenan Rurak
The Lions came storming out of the gate scoring the first eight points of the game on their way to 21-5 first-quarter lead and a 36-14 advantage at the half. York’s ironclad defence allowed only a single field goal in first quarter. The Lions shot a stellar 5-of-8 from three-point range and held the Golden Gaels to 14.7 per cent shooting in the first half. From that point, the Lions continued to pile on the points and held off any attempts of a Queen’s comeback.
This article was submitted to YFile by Don Lane, sport information assistant in York’s School of Kinesilology & Health Science, Faculty of Health.