OSHAWA, Ont. - The Sheridan Bruins women's basketball team (11-16, 9-12 OCAA) nearly climbed out of a 16-point fourth quarter deficit, but couldn't quite make it all the way back in an 80-74 loss to Durham, knocking them from the OCAA post-season.
"That's the microcosm of our season really. There are a handful of games that come to mind where if we could have put together a 40-minute effort, the result could have been much different," head coach Willie Delas said. "Tonight we really struggled from 3-point range and if we had shot even a mildly respectable percentage, it could have been a whole different ball game in the fourth quarter."
The Bruins managed to be in the contest late despite shooting 1-16 from deep and 19-33 from the charity stripe.
They were actually better from the line - by volume and success-rate - than Durham was, but were lacking timely conversions.
Most notably when they trimmed a 16-point deficit down to four and stepped to the line for a pair that could have made it a two-point game.
Both were missed though and Durham responded with an 8-0 run - capped by a pair of 3-pointers from Maddie Dender - that pushed the margin back to double figures.
The Double Blue made it interesting down the stretch, pulling to within five, but ultimately ran out of time.
Until the latter stages of the third quarter, it was a tight battle with neither side able to wrestle away control. Sheridan led 20-15 after one and 35-33 at the break, but were out-scored 28-14 in the third quarter, where the majority of their deficit came from.
Brianna Stewart scored a team-high 20 points, while Theresa Brown (14), and Courtni Martin (12) were also in double figures.
Although disappointed after an abrupt end to their year, Delas was pleased with the progress made.
"We're certainly not satisfied with being knocked out of the playoffs on day one, but we took some steps in the right direction," he said. "We allowed ourselves to crawl into some big holes far too often this year, but we always showed a lot of fight to try and work out of it."