Image via douglascollegeroyals.ca
Women’s basketball has an exciting finish to the semester
By Davie Wong, Sports Editor
It was a wild week for women’s basketball. Their last week of games this semester gave the viewers some basketball gems. Let’s start with Friday’s game against the Langara Falcons.
The Royals definitely started on the flat foot. Nothing went right for them in the first quarter, as the Falcons shot to an early lead, scoring 15 while limiting the Royals to just 5 points. The Royals managed to stabilize in the second quarter, scoring 12 while allowing 11, but it wasn’t near enough to reduce to that Langara lead.
Coming out in the third, the Royals really made an effort to come back, but were pretty much held down by the Falcons’ defence, and the 2 fizzled out on each other, scoring 11 points a side. Down by 9, the Royals needed an incredible effort to grab a win.
And I’d pay a thousand dollars to know what Steve Beauchamp did during the team talk at the third quarter intermission, because he sparked a fire within his team. The women came back in a miraculous fashion, tearing the Falcon defense apart and just really making them look silly. An incisive 22-point quarter, as well as keeping the Falcons to 7 points in the last 10 minutes, ensured the team’s victory, 50–44.
The difference maker that game really had to be Rachel Beauchamp. Fourteen rebounds and 14 points gave her yet another double-double on the year.
With that game in the books, and yet another win under their belts, the women took their basketball stylings to a little university out in the valley to face off against the Quest Kermodes. They picked up where they left against the Falcons, tearing into the Kermodes in the first quarter for 21 points. But the Kermodes are a good team, and they knew how to answer the Royals offense with a little offense of their own. Nineteen points in the second to be exact, with only 13 in reply from the Royals.
It was a tight game going into the half, with the score at 34–33, Royals leading. The Douglas squad managed to extend their lead by a single in the third quarter. And while the solitary point seemed rather a damp reward for a hard quarter, the fourth would prove that every point does matter. In a wild shootout, the Kermodes beat out the Royals in the fourth quarter by one point, scoring 24 to their 23. But because they held a two-point lead from their one point differential in the third quarter, the Royals won out the game, 70–69. It was a thriller for all that watched, but undoubtedly shaved a few years off of Steve Beauchamp’s heart.
Speaking of Beauchamp, a different Beauchamp had a very big game for her team. Rachel Beauchamp put in the best game of her season, and maybe her career so far, scoring 28 huge point for her team, and picking up 10 rebounds for yet another double-double. That takes her total up to five double-doubles in six games. It might be a little early to be calling for a Player of the Year award, but it would take a cataclysmic event to not award her an All-Star at this point. If I was PACWEST or CCAA, I’d just give her the treble already, that’s how massive she is for her team.
The win gives the team a league record of 5–1, which is good enough for second place in the PACWEST going into the winter break. The rest will be nice for the Royals squad, but the fear that taking their foot off the gas pedal now may negatively affect them in the future. Either way, no one can deny the Royals’ dominant form as of late.
