Recap The Court

Jacob Smith

Here we go again, part 3 this year and part I can’t count over the past five years. It’s the TMU Bold and the Brock Badgers in OUA quarterfinal action with the winner moving on. Once again these two teams meet in a very high stakes game and another chapter of the rivalry is about to be written. I’m here to break it all down.

We all know the history of these two teams. 2019 TMU hosts Brock in the OUA Critelli Cup championship where 42 points from Sam Keltos lifts Brock over the top. 2021 both Brock and TMU go undefeated leading to another Critelli Cup championship where TMU pulls off an incredible fourth quarter comeback to get revenge and bring home a banner. Later that postseason they meet in the semifinals of the U SPORTS Final 8 where TMU takes it in overtime going on to win a national championship. They meet twice in 2022 and 2023 and here we are in 2024-25 where they’re standing in each others way to get back to a championship.

Madalyn Weinert, Kaillie Hall, Angeline Campbell, Catrina Garvey, Ava Stranges, Hailey Franco-DeRyck, these two sides have had contributions from everyone through the year as they pushed towards a 17-5 record for TMU and 16-6 for Brock. Now they’re the four and five seed with the game taking place at TMU.

Starting with the home team, I think we have to talk about Kaillie Hall. Going back to their last meeting near the end of the regular season, the impact Kaillie had on the game, both defending Angeline Campbell and giving a spark on offence with her tenacity, fuelled the Bold in their big win. She is the energy for the Bold team and she is on the floor with two great second year players in Catrina Garvey and Hailey Franco-DeRyck.

Together the trio of Kaillie, Catrina and Hailey give TMU a very versatile offence with Catrina creating, Kaillie playing off the catch and Hailey doing it all inside the paint. Adding to their versatile offence is someone who’s had some pretty good games against the Badgers over the past, Jayme Foreman. Jayme is the Bold’s best three-point shooter and often playing on the opposite side, she catches teams not recovering fast enough as kick out passes to the shoulder end up in her hands and in the net.

The versatility of the Bold’s offence that I just mentioned leads me to my key for the Bold in this game which is keep sharing the ball. The Bold got a lot opportunities in both second chances and making extra passes. Working the ball around the perimeter and driving baseline leading to a three, using screens to create lanes for Kaillie where she can take it to the hoop or pass it back out to Catrina who finds Haley Fedick for a three or a reset to get the ball back inside. TMU beat Brock on extended possessions and getting loose balls to reset possessions, and that effort to keep working to find the best opportunity is once again an avenue for TMU to find success.

On the defensive end TMU needs to do what they did last game which is put a body on Angeline as soon as she gets into the half court. Angeline will put up threes if she’s given space, and she can hit them at a very efficient rate, making Brock slow down and work the ball to get a shot later in the shot clock will help TMU’s defence settle and use their strength which I believe is their individual one on one defence. Defending the early shot clock three and playing sound around the rim should provide a great baseline for the Bold to execute defensively.

Going to the other side of the matchup, in both games this season Brock was led by MVP candidate Madalyn Weinert who played 38 and 32 minutes respectively. She is who the Badgers go to when they need a bucket, and she produces way more often than not. She can get to the hoop or create her own mid range shot, and when defences find a way to slow her, she has a dynamic guard in Angeline Campbell to dish it to. Brock has found a lot of success through the pair of Angeline and Madalyn this season, and the shooting of rookie Ava Stranges has been icing on top to push the Badgers over the edge to where they are now.

The Badgers work a lot of downhill attack sometimes using screens and sometimes using the quick step of their guards, and when you have two as versatile as Angeline and Madalyn, that’s understandable. When the rim is taken away, like it was in their second matchup with TMU, Brock looks outside to Ava Stranges and Jamie Addy as their secondary scoring often from the corner and baseline, though Ava can also knock down a elbow jumper.

The key for the Badgers in this matchup is for others like Ava, Olivia Fiorucci, Jaime Addy, to attack and get all five of TMU’s defence moving. Look to create opportunities off the ball by getting to spots and take the shots especially along the baseline to pull Hailey Franco-DeRyck and Haley Fedick out of the paint. The Badgers need to spread the Bold out to open up what the want to do around the rim. Last matchup the Bold did a good job of their rim protectors denying opportunities around the basket, and Brock needs to play aggressive from all parts of the floor to pull the eyes of the defenders away and open up areas inside.

Brock gave up 13 offensive rebounds to the Bold in their last matchup to just getting five of their own, which is my defensive key for Brock in this matchup. Getting bodies on everyone once a shot goes up is vital to control possessions and keep pace. Not allowing Catrina Garvey to jump in from outside the paint and take the ball away to reset possession, boxing out Hailey Franco-DeRyck to limit her impact on the boards. staying mindful of positioning inside the paint and putting an emphasis on winning the boards. Brock can’t let TMU get second or third chances as much as they did in the last matchup, and it’s going to take effort from all five on the court to recognize where bodies are and win positioning to get loose rebounds.

This rivalry has many chapters to it, and a championship on both sides. They’re in each others way to get another which means we’ll write more of the story this Saturday in Toronto.