The Ravens dribbled and drove their way to a commanding victory Nov. 3 (Photo: Laura Palbom)

The Carleton women’s varsity basketball team crushed their cross-town rivals, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, 70-46 in their regular season home opener Nov. 3.

“The game was a little ragged,” said head coach Taffe Charles, “but we outworked them and it showed on the court.”

Carleton started the game a little slow, allowing the Gee-Gees to take an early lead because of sloppy passing and 11 Raven turnovers. 

However, the team quickly battled back to finish the quarter ahead 17-12.

“No matter who’s better or who’s worse, a lot of the kids read into the rivalry,” Charles said.

With that in mind, the lady hoopsters continued to dominate in the second quarter and ended the half up 39-24.

Guard Kendall MacLeod led the Ravens in scoring with a total of 13 points in the first half.

However, several of the players dropped some very important three-pointers to help put the Ravens on top.

“We were rebounding really well,” said second-year guard Alyson Bush. “We really hustled.”

The Ravens went hard to the rim every time and out-rebounded the Gee-Gees 33-9.

Forward Ines Jelic led the way with eight rebounds.

They continued to dominate on defence in the second half with guard Jennifer Stoqua drawing a charge from the Gee-Gees on the very first play.

Bush also stopped a breakaway in the third quarter and the Ravens forced the Gee-Gees to make several 24-second time violations.

Despite the Gee-Gees push at the end of the third quarter, the Ravens offence continued to light it up and the Ravens ended the game with a crushing 70-46 victory.

“We didn’t want our rivals coming in and beating us on our home court,” said third-year forward Ashleigh Cleary.

The Ravens will look to keep their momentum going Nov. 6-7 against University of Guelph and Brock University.