Adamo Marinelli
Jan. 15, 2023
From Kali Pocrnic to Emma Kiesekamp to Jacqueline Urban; the Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team has offensive powerhouses all over the court, but their strongest threat is when everyone is scoring on one accord.
In many games early on in the season, the Ravens struggled to get production from their bench and relied mainly on star guard Kali Pocrnic for the majority of their offence.
The same storyline rang true in the Ravens’ 73-61 win against the Guelph Gryphons on Saturday, Jan. 14. The bench combined for only 12 points and struggled to get their offence going. Pocrnic scored 27 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals in 36 minutes.
More recently, the bench players and the starters around Pocrnic have stepped up and contributed which has helped to make Carleton’s offence more dynamic when points are coming from everyone, and not just one all-star player.
In Carleton’s 74-50 win against Ontario Tech on Friday, Jan. 13, in which the Ravens’ controlled the entire game, Pocrnic was limited to only four points, while shooting j28.5 per cent from the field, however, they were able to build and sustain their lead thanks to 36 points from their bench and 34 points from the other four starters, who’ve stepped up more often as the season progressed.
Starting forward Jacqueline Urban recorded 16 points and eight rebounds, guard Dorcas Buisa recorded eight points, six rebounds and five assists and guard Emma Kiesekamp recorded six points and 10 rebounds to help make up for Pocrnic’s lack of production.
36 points is the highest output from their second unit all season. Ontario Tech’s bench only had four points. The win against Ontario Tech is the sixth consecutive game in which the Ravens’ bench outscored their opposition and it was by a combined margin of 161-30. Carleton is 5-1 in those games, which proves a strong bench makes all the difference.
Zerina Duvnjak, Teresa Donato and Oceane Kounkou combined to score 34 of the Ravens’ 36 bench points recording 14, 11 and nine points respectively.
The entire starting five for the Ravens was fantastic on the defensive end in both games this weekend, covering their opponents tightly to take away passing lanes, creating turnovers, attacking in transition and preventing their opponents from getting open shots in high-percentage areas like in the paint and around the rim.
“Obviously as coaches, we preach defence, team defence, and team effort … I thought that’s what we were able to do throughout the second half, particularly the third quarter, there was a stretch of about three minutes where we didn’t score, but we were able to get some stops … [team defence] really made the difference tonight,” Ravens’ Women’s Basketball Head Coach Dani Sinclair said in a postgame press conference on Jan. 14.
As a team, the Ravens also showed their dominance on the glass, outrebounding Ontario Tech 54-20; in the paint, outscoring Ontario Tech 34 to 20 in the area and recording 19 points off turnovers compared to only nine for Ontario Tech.
Including the 73-61 win against the Guelph Gryphons on Saturday, in Carleton’s 11 wins, they have outrebounded their opponent in nine games, have outscored their opponents in the paint nine times and have outscored their opponents in points in transition in eight games. This shows that a complete team effort both on offence and defence is critical to success and it's what Carleton has done for most of the season.
Carleton’s 36 bench points against Ontario Tech were critical in helping the Ravens build a lead in the first half and sustain it in the second half while allowing the starters to get some rest ahead of the game on Saturday against the Guelph Gryphons.
The added rest definitely helped Pocrnic, who dominated the Gryphons’ defence scoring 27 points while shooting 12/19 from the field and recording five rebounds, four assists and three steals. She knocked down her shots with confidence, drove the rim effectively, and her presence drew in extra defenders allowing her to make a pass to an open teammate for a shot.
It wasn’t just Pocrnic contributing offensively, however. Buisa scored 10 points while recording three rebounds, two assists and two steals and Kiesekamp recorded a double-double, scoring 14 points; she dominated the glass collecting 14 rebounds too.
Kiesekamp reflected on her mindset for the rest of her final season.
“This is it for me, I’m graduating so I'm gonna give like everything I have for the team these last few months and not hold anything back. I want to be successful and help my team as much as possible and get as many wins as we can and hopefully, that leads us coming together as a team,” said Kiesekamp, adding they are much more dynamic when they play as a team.
The Ravens’ bench was less effective against the Gryphons, scoring only 12 points and being outscored for the first time in seven contests however, all five of the starters were clicking offensively which allowed Pocrnic to get more open looks and knock down more shots.
The Ravens’ offence is much more effective when all five starters are involved which has been the case in all four of their wins in January, compared to when Pocrnic is carrying the majority of the offensive burden on her own.
Another issue the Ravens have faced has been a lack of aggression to start games, which happens when the Ravens struggle to get everyone involved offensively and rely on only one player to score. Five of the Ravens’ 11 wins this year have been on the backs of second-half comebacks.
Sinclair was pleased with the team’s response and how everyone getting involved offensively helped them recover from another slow start which saw them trail 18-12 after the first quarter.
“Our response tonight was really good,” Sinclair said. “I think our tendency sometimes is to feel the game out a little bit too much [which leads to slow starts and early deficits] … and I’d prefer that we come out a little bit more aggressive … but our girls were calm and didn’t panic,” Sinclair said.
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