The Gaels looked to defend home court on Jan. 11 as the Women’s and Men’s Basketball teams welcomed the Nipissing Lakers to the Athletics and Recreation Centre for OUA regular season action.
Women’s Basketball
Queen’s Women’s Basketball currently boasts a 9-2 regular season record, including four wins and just one loss at home all season.
The Gaels are also coming into this game riding a nine-game win-streak against the Lakers, making their 80-57 victory no surprise.
However, the Gaels got off to an unexpected start, trailing 17-23 by the end of the first quarter.
The Gaels struggled to score around the rim. Luckily, huge shots from Kiera Spencer, ArtSci ’27, and Amy Hagman, Kin ’26, ensured the Gaels wouldn’t fall too far behind the Lakers.
The Gaels tightened up defensively in the second quarter, stealing ball after ball just as the Lakers would make their way into the paint.
Hagman forced the Lakers to call a timeout after hitting consecutive threes to tie the game, then hitting two more out of the timeout to give the Gaels a six-point lead.
Hagman, who finished with a game-high 21 points while shooting 6-8 from beyond the arc, shared her mindset during her hot streak in a post-game interview with The Journal.
“With all my shots, I just try to be on balance, in control, and open, and I find that works best for me. When I’m not rushing, I tend to play a lot better,” Hagman said.
Spencer, Bree Bourget, Kin ’28, and Katrina Renon, ArtSci ’27, added threes of their own as the Gaels closed out the half, now leading by a score of 42-31.
Ally Smith, Kin ’26, got the second half underway—scoring yet another three for the Gaels.
Dominance in the paint primarily characterized the Gaels’ success in the third quarter, scoring mainly from the key and securing both offensive and defensive boards to help limit the Lakers’ ability to cut the Gaels’ lead.
Going into the fourth quarter, the Gaels led by a score of 61-44.
The Gaels continued to mercilessly knock down three after three, both growing their lead and in turn, forcing the Lakers to step up and try to contest their shots from beyond the arc. This opened up the paint for the Gaels, helping them to blow by the Lakers defense and establish a legitimate three-level scoring threat.
The team closed out the Lakers 80-57.
Queen’s shot 44.1 per cent from the three-point line, something they’ve struggled to do this season said Head Coach of the Women’s Basketball team Claire Meadows.
“This year, we’ve struggled a bit to shoot from behind the three and teams have really started to collapse on us. I thought tonight they were playing a triangle and two defense, and again, our ability to knock down threes changed the game because it changed how they had to defend us,” Meadows said.
Men’s Basketball
The Men’s Basketball team defended their first-place seed later that evening when they defeated the Nipissing Lakers, who sit at the bottom of the OUA East division—growing their win streak to 10 games.
It was a closely contested first quarter. Very early, it became apparent the Gaels would have to play a hard-fought, physical game to remain atop the OUA East standings.
The Gaels’ press defence seemed to be too much for the Lakers to handle, coupled with the Gaels’ ability to capitalize on the Lakers’ turnovers and a handful of huge threes from the likes of AJ Cummings, Arts ’26, Ollie Engen, Kin ’28, and Scott Jenkins, ConEd ’25, the Gaels earned a 34-22 point lead as they exited the first quarter.
The Gaels continued to reap the benefits of their defensive pressure into the second quarter. Serving as a constant annoyance to the Lakers, the Gaels forced them into compounding mistakes.
A physical and -1 from Jalen Sikkema, ArtSci ’28, caused an eruption from the crowd, making it even harder for the travelling Lakers to find any sort of footing in the game.
A Sikkema three-pointer late in the half forced the Lakers to take a timeout as they scrambled to find a solution for the Gaels’ offensive and defensive pressure.
The Gaels went into the third quarter with a 55-38 point lead, and consecutive threes from Luka Syllas, ConEd ’25, and Cummings forced the Lakers to use another time-out.
Similar to the women’s game, the Gaels ability to consistently knock down the three forced the Lakers to adjust their defensive strategy, opening up much easier shots for the Gaels, and adding to the Lakers trouble.
Even though the defenders were desperately trying to defend the onslaught of threes from Engen and Cummings, they continued to reign down upon the Lakers, shooting a combined 8-14 from the three-point line on the night.
By the end of the third quarter, there was hardly a play that didn’t warrant exclamation from the crowd. Syllas and Isaac Krueger, ArtSci ’25, ed the three-point parade, and Aaron Tennant, Law ’25, began viciously protecting the rim, recording block after block.
With a minute left in the third quarter, the full-court press led to Jenkins stealing the ball from the Lakers, and a quick to Kai Dalen, ArtSci ’25, led to a monstrous dunk, bringing the entire gym to their feet.
The Gaels entered the final frame of the game leading 94-58.
A plethora of three-pointers from Sikkema, Jenkins, and Lucas Ponting, Comm ’26, plus a few turnovers by the Lakers, led to the Gaels owning a 39-point lead with just three minutes to go in the game.
After a few more minutes of domination, the Lakers found themselves on the backend of a severe drought, falling at the hands of our Gaels by a score of 111-76.
Shooting an impressive 40.9 per cent from the three-point line and recording 32 points off of turnovers, Gaels Head Coach Stephan Barrie reflected on his approach to the three-ball in an interview with The Journal.
“As a staff, we try really hard not to pay attention to that part [scoring threes] and really pay attention to ‘what is our defence doing, how is that impacting how we’re playing?’”
“Some nights we might make shots, some nights we may not, but if we’re playing in the style that we want, at the pace that we want, doing the things that we want, we can live with the results of those nights,” Barrie added.
The Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams will head to Oshawa, Ont. on Jan. 15, where they’ll tip off against the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks.
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