CIS CORNER: TRICOLOUR WOMEN TAKE IT TO TORONTO

Here's the kind of weekend it's been so far for our teams of interest from the 613:

• WOMEN'S HOCKEY: Gananoque's Liz Kench's two goals were the difference in Queen's 3-1 win over Toronto in a showdown for second place in the OUA at venerable old Jock Harty Arena. The Gaels are three points up in the race to earn a bye into the women's league's Frozen Four, meaning yesterday might have marked their final league game at the Jock.
• MEN'S HOCKEY: The U of O Gee-Gees will open the playoffs at home after beating Toronto 4-3 (Dan McDonald with a goal and a helper), since the Golden Gaels had a winless weekend (losing 2-1 to Concordia and 3-0 to Trois-Rivieres) and now go into the final week still looking to secure a playoff berth.
  
  Concordia's Brett Beauchamp got the game-winner against Queen's, who's just one point ahead of RMC and Concordia for fifth place, with the latter having a game in hand.
  
  Coach Jim Hulton's Paladins got a much needed split on the road, coming back from three goals down on Friday to beat Concordia 7-6 in overtime on a goal by Duane Fetzner. Ottawa native Nick Cregan got the tying goal for RMC with 4:09 left, less than a minute after teammate Paul Bradley got his fifth point of the night with a short-handed goal.
  
  The good news for the Gaels and Paladins is that while Concordia has three games left to their two, they finish up at home next weekend.
  
  Nick Vernelli, the one-time Ernestown Eagle, picked up three points in the Gee-Gees' 6-2 romp over Ryerson on Friday.
  
• HOOPS: Stu Turnbull's 19 points and Oz Jeanty's 15 (and nine boards) carried the No. 3 Carleton Ravens past Toronto 70-63, all but clinching home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, since the Ottawa Gee-Gees lost a two-pointer to U of T one night earlier. The Ravens have some flu symptoms going through the lineup -- Jean-Emmanuel Jean-Marie played just 11 minutes all weekend. Friday, Aaron Doornekamp had a double-double (18 points, 12 boards) and couple other inside players -- Kevin McCleery with 13 on 6-of-7 shooting, and Sheldon Stewart with 11 -- had nice nights in a 90-66 rout of Ryerson.
• The Gee-Gees had six guys in double figures in last night's 88-75 win over Ryerson; Jermaine Campbell had an all-around night with 16 points, seven boards and six steals. Ottawa would need help from Queen's next weekend in Kingston to still have a hope of finishing ahead of Carleton.
• As for the Gaels, look on the bright side: They stuck with the York Lions before ultimately going down 84-77 in T.O., and Mitch Leger had his best game in two weeks with 21 points. Lions guard Tut Ruach, who's become a recurring character here, dropped 23 points and five dimes, while 6-foot-10 Jordan Foebel and swingman Rohan Steen each had double-doubles. The Gaels (10-8) are likely to end up finishing fifth and returning to Toronto in three weeks for a first-round playoff game, but paraphrasing Jim Cuddy, at least they're living again. Friday, the Gaels lost 66-56 to Laurentian, who came in 3-13 in the conference.
• Similar story for the Tricolour women, who lost 55-42 to first-place York and slipped a game behind Laurentian for second place in the OUA East and a bye into the division's final four. The Gaels played for the tiebreaker in Friday's 57-56 loss to the Lady Vees, opting not to foul in the final seconds so they could keep the split (they won the earlier game by three). Queen's (12-7), who didn't have anyone in double figures vs. York (Claire Meadows had 10 rebounds and eight points), finishes with three sub-.500 teams, while Laurentian still has to play Toronto and York.
  
  Lady Vees star Cassandra Carpenter, who's from Kanata, had 17 points vs. Queen's.
  

Related: CIS Hoops.ca

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