York in jeopardy of not making it to the playoffs

Lewis Chaitov
Staff writer
This season has easily become a high-speed racecar heading toward a ditch for the women’s basketball team.
After losing their eighth game in a row on Feb. 4 to Ottawa 70-63, the Lions had to face the Ontario University Athletics’ first place team, the Carleton Ravens. Lacking courage and strength, York lost yet again to the Ravens 54-40.
It became a night where the Lions put up the lowest amount of points on the board this whole season, and made their record a disappointing five wins and 14 losses.

Saturday night showed a completely different team on the court, a team that quickly ran out of gas in the last minutes of the fourth period.
The Lions had possession of the ball throughout the match and had enough scoring opportunities. But when it came time to actually making the shot, the Lions fell short. How much the team was struggling became even more sadly visible when York players put up a measly five points on the board in the second quarter; you can’t win games that way.
“Rebounding is our Achilles’ heel,” said Kara Smith, a third-year player on the team. “We let the team out rebound us and that shouldn’t happen. We have to be strong on the boards and right now we’re trying to keep everybody positive.”
The game that night highlighted Carleton’s strong offence, which made 41 offensive and defensive rebounds compared to York’s 22.
The rebounds weren’t the only problem the team was facing. Players were anything but cohesive, and they began drifting apart from one another during the whole game. Nadia Qahwash, a second-year guard, wasn’t surprised by the results of the match, noting the team has been suffering from a lot of foolish mistakes made on the court. “We worry when we are not scoring and we know when things are not going our way we forget to do the simple things. We sometimes don’t believe in ourselves.”
With three games left this season, the women’s team needs to win every remaining game to ensure they keep their playoff spot. Their last appearance at York before the playoffs is Feb. 18, where the team plays against the Laurentian Voyageurs, who are fighting for a playoff spot as well.