By: Colton Pankiewicz
Canisius traveled to Toledo and Detroit on Friday and Sunday in a weekend road trip that would set them back to 1-2 on the season.
After the first quarter of action on Friday the Golden Griffins found themselves down 23-6 to the Rockets with Toledo senior Quinesha Lockett scoring 7 of her 27 points in the first quarter.
Canisius responded in the second quarter with a 13-4 run thanks to threes from Griffs freshmen Sisi Eleko and Brooklyn Thrash, cutting their deficit within ten. Graduate student Vannessa Garrelts drained a three of her own to cut the score to 35-28. That was as close as Canisius got to Toledo finishing the last two minutes of the half of a 9-2 run. Despite three Griffs finishing with double digits (Gerrelts 17, Haskell 16,Gattozzi 10) Toledo took control in the second half, outscoring Canisius 49-36, and taking the contest 93-66.
Canisius then traveled from Toledo to Detroit in a matchup against the Detroit Mercy Titans where the Griffs looked to get back above .500 and the Titans looked to get their first win. In a similar game script to Toledo, Canisius trailed Detroit Mercy 21-9 after the first quarter. In another strong second quarter, the Griffins went on a 10-0 run, benefiting with threes from Garrelts and Thrash.
Canisius looked hopeful going into halftime trailing Detroit Mercy only 31-28. They’d be plagued by another disastrous third quarter, being outscored 26-9, digging themselves a 20 deficit going into the fourth. With six minutes left in regulation down 61-41, the Griffs found life again, scoring 10 unanswered in just three minutes with three pointers from Jane McCauley, Vannessa Garrelts, and Dani Haskell.
Despite a pair of Titans free throws, Canisius claimed 11 of the next 14 points scored and Haskell and-one made it just a one possession game with seven seconds left. Detroit Mercy’s Myonna Hooper was intentionally fouled and made both free throws, crushing what was almost an unprecedented Canisius comeback . Despite the loss Garrelts, and Haskell finished again as the Griffs leading scorers with 18 a piece.
Through three games, the Griffs are now 1-2 and look ahead to their contest against Binghamton at home to turn things around in the first and third quarter. In those three games the women show they can close out a half with a point differential of plus twenty in the second and fourth quarters, but -25,-35 in the first and third quarters. Canisius also looks to win the battle of the glass which is something they haven't done since their season opener where they outrebounded Buffalo 42-36. Since then they’ve been outrebounded a total 73-42.
“There's mentality and there's heart, you have to have the mindset to want to fight and get the ball. Detroit kicked our butts in rebounding by a lot, we talked about how we got to that point. It’s ball containment, don't let them shoot from the paint. If we want to help ourselves out from a rebounding perspective we can’t let them get the ball that deep. It starts before the shots are even taken,” said Canisius head coach Sahar Nusseibeh.
The Blue and Gold are back in action on Nov. 19 at home against Binghamton. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. with the game airing on ESPN+.