The York University Lions women's basketball team returned to the court on Friday night (Nov. 18) when the Waterloo Warriors traveled to Tait McKenzie Centre to hand the Lions their second straight loss by a score of 67-55.
 
The opening quarter of play was very tame for both teams as it took until the final minute of play for either team to break double digits. The defensively dominant period ended with a score of 11-9 in favour of the Lions.
 
Both teams seemed to find their offensive groove in the second quarter as ball movement increased dramatically. To aid in creating ball movement the Lions looked to shifty third-year point guard Haley Bowie (Hamilton, Ont.). Midway through the second quarter with the ball in her hand, Bowie crossed up her defender, dropping her to the ground and continued to lay in the ball after charging through the centre between the collapsing defenders.
 
On the defensive side of the ball, Shauney Fischer (Wallaceburg, Ont.) lit up the crowd when she blocked the shot of an unsuspecting Waterloo forward with great force. With a buzzer beating lay up by the Warriors the first half closed with a score of 24-22 in favor of Waterloo. 
 
In the third period of play both Waterloo and York would search for a way to separate them from the other. Defensively, Taylor Ross (Cookstown, Ont.) locked down the paint with a big block on an unlucky Warrior player. On the opposite side of the ball Ishanaa Seupersadsingh (Markham, Ont.) leveled up as she hit the mesh on an impressive off-balanced pull up jumper.
 
Waterloo would move on to gain a five-point lead at the end of the quarter by accepting the Lions challenge to shoot the three ball. A few successful attempts gave the Warriors a 45-40 lead to close out the third quarter.
 
The fourth and final quarter displayed the Warriors ability to separate and cement a lead. It also showed the Lions grit as a team that will play to the final whistle. The Warriors would find their success running screens and getting quick points in the paint while also hitting a slew of shots from behind the arc.
 
A display of the grit that the Lions showed came from Katrina-Collins Samuels (Hamilton, Ont.) when she accelerated with the ball just outside of the key. She then stopped on a dime and hit a mid-range turn around jumper displaying her top tier body control, but it wans't enough to surpass the Warriors.
 
With the loss the Lions now move to 0-2 to start the season. The Lions will look to end the streak on Saturday when they take on the Laurier Golden Hawks at the Tait Mckenzie Centre at 6pm..