The Champlain College women’s basketball team hosted Dawson College on Friday for their first season game in the CEGEP Division 1 league. Dawson finished with the win 78-39.
Champlain started off strong in the first quarter leading 13-10 with Judith Lavoie scoring four of those points and a team-high total of 11 in the game. Cougars coach Steve Cassivi said, “The message at the end of the first quarter was to increase our intensity.”
In the second quarter Dawson came back strong and intense as they scored right away to take the lead. The Blues gained momentum throughout the quarter and managed to take the lead by four points, causing Cassivi to call a time out and break the momentum.
However Dawson took it as a chance to breathe and came back just as strongly, scoring a total of 26 points in the quarter and leading 36-21 at halftime.
The Cougars were overpowered in the third and fourth quarter as well, taking a lot of fouls and letting Dawson get most rebounds, giving the Blues many opportunities to score.
“Our level of competition dropped and key fouls in situations didn’t help us,” Cassivi said. “We’re going to keep battling, were going to get better.”
Cougars team captain Lara Pomerleau-Fontaine played a total of 19 minutes and scored two points in the game, and she was a big asset for the team by keeping up their intensity even if they were down. “We know our weakness, and our good points, we can compete.” Pomerleau-Fontaine said in an interview after the game.
The Blues finished strong with a final score of 78-39. Anie-Pier Samson led all scorers with 21 points and Tamara Farquhar added another 17 points and 14 rebounds.
“I was happy with the effort, the girls were very supportive of each other on the court, we just need to tighten some stuff up on offence,” Blues head coach Trevor Williams said.
The Blues’ (1-0) next game will be at home against Vanier on Friday.
The Cougars (0-1), meanwhile, will host Champlain-St. Lambert on Friday at 7 p.m.
