It was a week of redemption for the St. Thomas women’s basketball team, and they got it.
Before last week, the Tommies had lost three of their last four games. They lost to the Mount Saint Vincent Mystics, Crandall Chargers and the Holland College Hurricanes.
Tuesday, the Tommies started the week off right, beating the Mount Allison Mounties 67-56. Hilary Goodine went off in that game, scoring 29 points.
“We’re starting to hit our stride getting ready for playoffs, and that’s really all that’s important right now,” said Tommies head coach Fred Connors.
Next, the Tommies played the Mount Saint Vincent Mystics, with a chance to avenge the 58-52 loss they suffered on Jan. 24. Both teams started out slow, but the Tommies were a step faster. In the first half the Tommies held the Mystics to just 9 points, while STU scored 24.
“They beat us, so we wanted to go back and show them that shouldn’t have happened,” said STU’s Katelynn Carver.
The Tommies kept the defense up through the next two quarters, and finished with a 56-35 win.
Katelynn Carver came up with a strong game for STU, scoring 14 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Carver, Carissa McTague and Kelly Vass all finished with double digit rebounds, and the Tommies out rebounded MSVU 63-48.
“That’s one of the better rebound teams in the country,” said Connors. “I thought we did a good job battling today. We came ready to go to battle.”
Sunday brought game two of the Tommies redemption weekend. STU played host to the Crandall Chargers. The Chargers beat STU earlier in the year 69-49, and the Tommies weren’t going to let that happen again.
The Tommies once again won the rebounding battle, getting 64 boards compared to Crandall’s 55. Vass had the most rebounds for STU with 15 while scoring a game high 24 points. Rookie Jessica Patenaude also played well scoring 15 points, including some key baskets late in the game when STU was struggling to score.
In the first half the Tommies showed that the previous loss was a mistake, as they took a 32-23 lead. Crandall tried to make a push in the third quarter, but the Tommies held on to win 73-66. Tommies guard Laura Anderson, who picked up four steals in Sunday’s game, said the wins had some extra sweetness to them.
“No one likes to lose so it’s just a nice little added bonus to win against them both,” said Anderson.
The week’s three wins put the Tommies record at 13-3, and second in the ACAA behind Holland College. The wins also mean they can’t do any worse than second, and will get by for the first round of playoffs.
“[The games] were extremely important for both our team atmosphere and in league play. We locked up second in the league and if we can get Holland this weekend we can get first again,” said Anderson.
This weekend the Tommies will play Holland College, which would be the ultimate revenge because they would be in first place. On Sunday, the Tommies play the UNBSJ Seawolves in the final game of the season before playoffs.
Carver feels that after the strong weekend, things are looking up for the Tommies.
“We’ve been in a slump, so it’s good for our confidence,” said Carver.
