The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold women's basketball squad spiraled out of the postseason picture on Wednesday evening in a foul-filled 67-49 defeat to the Queen's Gaels.
The loss prevented the Bold from appearing in the Critelli Cup final, which would have guaranteed the Toronto side an automatic appearance in the national championship next week in Edmonton.
Three of the Bold's five starters nearly finished Wednesday's semi-final on the bench, with Kaillie Hall, Hailey Franco-DeRyck and Corrynn Parker all ending the final night of their seasons with four personal fouls each.
Head coach of the Bold Carly Clarke also picked up a technical foul in the closing stages of the fourth to cap off the Bold's season-ending defeat.
The group has been unable to advance past the OUA semi final in each of their last two seasons and are only two years removed from their third-straight national championship appearance that saw them secure gold in 2022.
Queen's Julia Chadwick and Laura Donovan helped pull their side away from TMU in the fourth quarter on Wednesday with a pair of threes to punctuate a late 11-2 run from the home team.
Both players combined for 41 of the Gaels' 67 points on the evening, with Chadwick picking up an absurd 17 rebounds to go along nicely with a 42.6 field goal percentage.
Hall and Catrina Garvey - who both collected individual accolades heading into midweek action - led an unbalanced attack for TMU, putting up 19 and 14 points respectively in the defeat.
As has been the case in the majority of TMU's losses throughout the season, problems shooting from beyond the arc managed to consistently bury the Bold on the scoreboard against the Gaels and reared its ugly head in the deciding final frame.
The Bold landed just 1 of 5 shots in the fourth quarter alone after going 1-12 from three in the preceding pair of frames.
Doubling TMU's success from the outer rim through forty minutes was the Gaels who stitched together a closer version of a complete game in all areas of the court to help catapult themselves further into the postseason and send the Bold crashing out of it.
Although their goals aligned with a national championship this season, the Bold still have much to look forward to in 2025. In a year highlighted by stellar performances from first-year players - one of which (Garvey) being credited with the league's Rookie of the Year award - the future at TMU on both sides of the ball looks bright and primed for a deeper playoff run.
The Bold now enter their offseason before picking things back up in the fall.
