KINGSTON, Ont. – Keneca Pingue-Giles (Winnipeg, Man.) continues to break her own records this season, the latest occurrence helping the Ryerson Rams defeat the first place Queen's Gaels by a score of 70-67 on Friday evening in Kingston.
BOXSCORE
Pingue-Giles established another new career-high with 25 points on the night, going 7-for-15 from the floor and adding nine points from the charity stripe.
Tied early on in the game, the Rams went on a 7-0 run to take an 11-4 lead and that lead grew to 13-5 with 3:20 remaining in the quarter but Queen's answered with an 11-0 run of their own to take a 16-13 lead. C'airah Gabriel-Robinson (Mississauga, Ont.) finished off a pass from Chloe Mago (Scarborough, Ont.) to round out the scoring at 16-15 for the Gaels after ten minutes of play.
After trading baskets to open the second quarter the Gaels opened up a six point advantage but after a Ryerson timeout the Rams seemed to gather themselves and get back to their own game plan.
Six straight points from Pingue-Giles tied the game up at 28-28 with two minutes remaining and the teams exchanged buckets to close the half tied at 33-33.
After a scrappy third quarter the Rams led 47-43 but the Gaels took the lead right back in the opening moments of the fourth quarter at 48-47. That would be the last time Queen's would lead, however, as Shannon McInerney (Oakville, Ont.) netted an offensive put back to start an 8-0 Ryerson run and open up a 55-48 advantage.
The Rams' lead grew to as many as 11 when Skye Johns (Kitchener, Ont.) converted a pair of free throws with 3:45 remaining to lead 61-50. The first place Gaels would not throw in the towel though and began to chip away at their deficit.
With time winding down, Queen's Liz Boag (Kingston, Ont.) nailed a deep three pointer to pull the Gaels within one at 68-67 but just eight seconds were left on the clock and the Rams converted two more free throws to close the game with the 70-67 victory.
One of the big differences in the game was the Rams ability to hit their free throws. Ryerson hit 20-of-29 on the night while Queen's shot just 50% from the charity stripe and left points off the board.
The Rams also forced the Gaels into 21 turnovers, well over their average of 16 coming into the contest.
Annie Sokoloff (North Vancouver, B.C.) also finished in double digits for the Rams with ten points. Silvana Jez (Kitchener, Ont.) had a game-high ten rebounds.
Gemma Bullard (Guelph, Ont.) scored a team-high 14 points in the loss for the Gaels.
Ryerson (4-7) moves back into a tie for fourth in the OUA east with the victory while Queen's (7-4) is now in a three-way tie for first place.
The Rams return to the court on Saturday evening when they visit the York Lions at 6:00 p.m.
