MONTREAL, Que. - The Sheridan Bruins women's basketball team (5-2) took a Thanksgiving weekend trip to Montreal with four games against RSEQ competition, and returned with a split after posting a 2-2 record.
"We showed a lot of grit and a lot of growth throughout the weekend in some very physical games," head coach Sean Douglas said. "It's always nice to come down here and start off the season with some tough competition. Picking up a couple of wins is nice, but what we really want is to use this time to play around with rotations and see what's going to work best for us offensively and defensively moving forward."
The Double Blue opened the trip against Dawson - the reigning RSEQ champions and back-to-back national finalists - and had the game slip away from them in the second half. Trailing by six at the break, Sheridan cut their deficit to four early in the third but their opposition put together a pair of big runs (13-0 and 11-0) to push the margin to 20, before settling into an 85-55 Dawson victory.
Theresa Brown poured in a game-high 25 points, while Sydney Charvis was also in double figures with 14.
In their second game against Vanier, the Bruins were slow out of the gate - trailing 23-9 after the opening frame - but slowly climbed their way back and out-scored the home side 25-12 in the final period to claim a 69-67 victory. Brown led the way again offensively with 22 points, while Charvis filled up with the stats sheets with 17 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. Ashley McDonald was also in double figures with 12 points.
They didn't show any signs of fatigue when they played a second game in a little more than 12 hours, downing John Abbott 82-55. The homeside led 15-13 after one, but the Bruins used a 15-2 second quarter-opening run to take the lead for good, and blew the game open with a 12-2 run early in the third that turned a six-point edge into a 51-35 advantage.
McDonald (17), Brown (16), and Charvis (16) led a balanced Double Blue attack.
Sheridan wrapped up the trip with a 55-42 loss to St-Jean sur Richelieu.
They have one pre-season tune-up remaining before conference play begins on Oct. 20, hosting Durham on Oct. 13 (5pm).
Blue notes: The RSEQ has been such a deep conference historically, that in the 41 years women's basketball has been a CCAA sport there have been twice as many all-Quebec national title games (10) as those without a representative from La belle province (5).