Recap The Court

The Gee-Gees fresh off a victory over the Laurentian Voyageurs, travel to Waterloo to take on a team that beat them in the regular season in the Waterloo Warriors. Waterloo off a bye week come in as the fourth seed, Ottawa the fifth, and if this game is anything like their regular season encounter, it’s going to be about who can lock it down defensively in the fourth quarter.

For Waterloo, they came out on the victorious end of the decision in the regular season, and they will need to repeat that formula to come out on top of the rematch and advance to the semifinals. In the fourth quarter of their regular season matchup, Waterloo held Ottawa to 1-10 shooting, created 9 turnovers and won the rebounds by a tally of 10-5.

Playing great half court defence as they are known for, they denied Ottawa any second chances and controlled possession as they outscored the Gee-Gees 18-4 in the quarter en route to a 60-52 victory.

The biggest thing for the Warriors will be taking care of the basketball. Despite their fourth quarter turnaround, Waterloo turned the ball over 32 times in their game against Ottawa in the regular season, and giving a team like Ottawa that many opportunities both in transition and extra possessions will make coming out on top that much more difficult.

Ottawa is one of the best transition teams in the OUA, and that stems from their defence forcing stops. Ariane Saumure and Natsuki Szczokin play great defence around the perimeter, and Melina De Iulio and Emily Payne lock down the paint getting boards and immediately looking for outlet passes to get the ball going quickly the other way.

While their transition game gets going, Ottawa being able to work through Waterloo’s half court defence and get the ball to Allie McCarthy in the corner and Melina in the post to play off the catch, getting Waterloo’s defence constantly moving and shuffling may help break down an opportunistic defence that forced 9 Ottawa turnovers in the fourth quarter in their last meeting.

Waterloo took their last meeting, and they come in to this one with home court advantage. Ottawa off a big win just a week ago is riding a lot of momentum and confidence. This has the potential to be the best matchup of the second round.