TORONTO — For the second game in a row, the TMU Bold women's basketball team was unable to complete a fourth quarter comeback bid, as the Waterloo Warriors prevailed with a 68-65 victory on Friday night at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
"I thought we showed some grit and resilience to not quit, but we can't put ourselves in that position. We've got to clean up that first-half, so that we don't have to expend so much energy to fight back. You finally get back to even, then they punch you right back — those ones are hard to kind of recover from," said Bold head coach Carly Clarke.
In the end, the Bold were never fully able to recover, after trailing by 11 at recess, and 10 at the start of the fourth. But they sure came close. With just eight seconds remaining, Rachel Farwell got a bucket inside to trim the TMU deficit to three. On the proceeding inbound, the Bold forced a jump ball and with the possession arrow pointing in their favour, the ball was suddenly in their possession.
"That was great," said fourth-year forward Rachel Farwell. "We've been in that situation before where we've really needed a five-second call or a jump ball — a way to get the ball back without fouling. That's the first time this season we've been able to properly execute that, so I was definitely proud of us for being able to pull that off."
However, Jayme Foreman's heave from the corner was unable to fall, and despite outscoring the visiting Warriors by seven in the fourth, the Bold fell to 0-3.
"We're getting there," said first-year guard Kait Nichols. "We've talked a lot about building and that's exactly what we're doing. We just have to find a way to get over that hump. We're battling back, we're tying it up — we just got to go that extra mile."
"It was tough. I'm really proud of how the team was able to battle back when we're down pretty big and really keep ourselves in it mentally in order to come back and tie it up — of course, ideally you finish the job and come out with the win, or you don't put yourself there in the first place. But overall, some highlights to come out of it for sure."
Among said highlights were a pair of standout performances from Nichols and Haley Fedick, who paced TMU throughout the night with each registering matching 17-point, 10-rebound outputs.
It was the second-straight big game for Nichols, following the first-years 10-point, 14-rebound, five-assist, five-steal outing against the Toronto Varsity Blues on Wednesday.
"Kait is an absolute workhorse," said Farwell. "She always comes up and like leaves everything she has out on the floor and never fails to impress me."
"We've had some injuries that have popped up Monday and Tuesday. All of a sudden, she's starting rather than coming off the bench and playing basically the entire game. The ball is in her hands every possession and she's just rising to the moment," said Clarke, when asked about the play of Nichols. "It's pretty exciting, I think. There's some excitement to build on as she gets more confident and comfortable in our offence. There's some exciting things there with her for sure.
Nichols was able to step up for a Bold team that was plagued with foul trouble throughout. Haley Fedick and Rachel Farwell each had three fouls at the half — a half that saw TMU pick up 16 personal fouls.
"We've got to be way more disciplined," said Clarke. "We've got to look at some things to clean up why we're fouling. That's a tough one. I thought a couple of them were close calls — that happens sometimes. When those two players are in foul trouble, we've got to go even deeper to our bench. I thought different people stepped up today, but we want to have our best players on the floor — like Rachel in particular — as much as we can."
One storyline of the matchup was Jessica Roque's return to the Mattamy Athletic Centre. Roque, who was the one-time lead assistant for Carly Clarke, has guided Waterloo to a 3-0 start. Tonight was Roque's first matchup back on the opposite bench as Clarke.
"(It was) awesome," said Clarke. "She's doing a great job with her team. She's got them playing really hard and really well. We were saying, as coaches, pregame that their team is playing with her personality, which is a really great compliment if you know Jess — energetic, passionate, competitive. For her having been with us for four years, to see her take over a program and to see them doing great — that's really meaningful to know that she's going on to being a great head coach herself. It's always great to face her."
"That's a goal of mine is to develop people in our system — whether it's our players, or staff or coaches, so they go on and continue to be involved in the game or whatever they want to do next," said Clarke, when asked about the Bold program serving as a springboard for coaches. "Those wins are as meaningful as any game win, I think."
TMU's next chance to pick up a win on the court comes next Friday night in Hamilton, as they take on the McMaster Marauders. The Bold will close out the weekend at the MAC in a meeting with the Algoma Thunderbirds on Saturday afternoon. Tip off is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.
