In the inside presence of Blues forwards Tara Kinnear and Nicki Schutz proved to be too much for the Ryerson Rams as the University of Toronto women’s basketball team escaped with a 78-69 OUA quarter-final victory on Saturday, Feb. 21 at U of T’s Sports Gym.

Kinnear (Kemptville, Ont.) and Schutz (Toronto) each recorded a double-double in their first playoff game for the Varsity Blues. Kinnear led the way early in the contest, tallying 17 points and nine boards in the first 20 minutes of actions.

Schutz, for her part, knocked down 14 of her 20 points, and eight of her 15 rebounds in the second half as Toronto battled back late in the fourth quarter to secure the win.

The Varsity Blues will now move on and host the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees in one of the OUA semi-final match-ups on Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 6 p.m.

Toronto got off to a great start offensively, breaking Ryerson’s full-court press and finishing easy two-on-one situations at the other end. Defensively, the Blues were just as tough under the basket and on the boards, out-rebounding the Rams 28-13 in the first half and stealing the ball eight times to their two.

As a team, the Blues 44% from the floor and 80% from the free-throw line and outscored their opponent 41-24 through two quarters, and at the end of the game the Varsity Blues had out-rebounded the Rams 54-30.

The third quarter was a completely different story as the Rams continued to press and were able to create turnovers of their own, while knocking down key three-point baskets from to pull within six at the end of the frame.

Led by the team’s leading scorer Lisa Goldring, the Rams shot the lights out in the third, going 9-for-17 (52%) from the field and 5-of-7 (71.4%) from three-point range.

Ryerson would continue to carry that momentum into the fourth quarter and would take the lead after Ashley MacDonald (Port Colbourne, Ont.) knocked down two huge baskets from beyond the arc that would give the Rams their first lead of the game at the 6:41 mark of the final frame.

Coming back in the game after a face-first fall to the floor, Schutz would lift her team with two key buckets and timely free throws to put Toronto back in front with less than three minutes to go in the game.

Ryerson misses and Toronto’s made free throws would be the difference down the stretch as the Blues hung on to an exciting 78-69 quarter-final victory.

Kinnear led the way with her team-high 22 points and 17 rebounds, complimented nicely by Schutz’ 20 and 15. Alaine Hutton (Hamilton, Ont.) added 12 points, six assists, four steals and one block. 

Goldring (Burlington, Ont.) had a game-high 23 points and four assists, while MacDonald and Kaitlyn Taylor (Sydney, N.S.) added 12 and 11 points respectively. Lacey O’Sullivan had a team-high six rebounds.