York University

The York University Lions women's basketball team opened the 2016-17 season at home with an 85-54 loss to the No. 6 nationally-ranked Queen's Gaels at the Tait McKenzie Centre on Friday night (Nov. 11).
 
The opening tip turned the keys to ignite the new season and the Lions were eager to see where their ride would take them. They were in tough against a talented Queen's squad that opened the season in the national rankings, and the Gaels displayed great ball movement and aggressiveness for second chance points in all four quarters. The first quarter would end with a score of 18-15 in favour of the Gaels.
 
In the second quarter the Lions looked to close the three-point gap and put pressure on the Gaels. The hosts turned to Khara Keane (Scarborough, Ont.) for a surge from the point guard position and she gave her teammates and fans everything that she had. Keane turned out to have a solid outing as she recorded seven points, four rebounds and two assists.
 
After two quarters the score would sit at 43-27 for Queen's.
 
After some halftime adjustments were made the Lions would storm back out onto the court in hopes to change their fortunes of the previous half. In this quarter the Lions would be treated to the energetic and relentless play of Ishanaa Seupersadsingh (Markham, Ont.). Seupersadsingh looked every bit as experienced as her fifth-year status would indicate as she moved swiftly along the court shaking defenders out of their shoes with a nifty hesitation move and pulling up for the basket. Seupersadsingh would end the game with an impressive stat line that read 13 points, four steals and two rebounds.
 
Her efforts alone would not be enough to shake the high percentage shooting Gaels, who shot 41.8% on field goals. The quarter would end with a score of 67-40 for the Gaels.
 
The Lions had a steep mountain to climb in the fourth quarter and they kept it closer than they had earlier in the game, but the Gaels still outscored the Lions by four points en route to the lopsided victory.
 
Taylor Ross (Alliston, Ont.) dominated the boards as she tallied seven rebounds to give her team as many chances as possible to close the gap on the score.
 
An extreme bright spot for the Lions was their ability to cash in at the charity stripe as they went 11-for-11 on free throws, led by Shauney Fischer (Wallaceburg, Ont.) with five as part of her 11-point night.
 
With the loss the Lions move to 0-1 on the season. York will look to get their first win when the Waterloo Warriors travel to Toronto, Ont., on Friday (Nov. 18) to challenge the Lions.