Hamilton, ON- Game after game, Rose-Anne Joly sees the improvement with her team. It may not always show on the scoreboard or stat sheet, but she saw it during their game against the McMaster Marauders on Dec. 2.

The Ottawa Gee-Gees women’s basketball team came into this season as a new team – eight new players in total. Some came from high school while others were transfers. Joly, their third-year head coach, knew it would take time for the team to acclimate to the style of play they wanted. 

If you looked on the court in their 62-51 win over the Marauders in the Burridge Gym, you saw those new players making a difference. You saw North Dakota transfer Allie McCarthy scoring inside. You saw point guard and Western transfer Ariane Saumure get two steals and eight rebounds – showing why she was the OUA Defensive Player of the Year in 2022-23. 

You saw the Gee-Gees follow Saumure’s lead and clamp down on the Marauders defensively in the third quarter as they pulled away. Joly senses Saumure’s energy on the defensive end, especially matching up one-on-one. She sees her carrying her pride defensively onto her teammates. 

Defence has always been the team’s strength, Joly points out. “Now we just need to create cohesion on the offensive end,” she added. 

To understand the Gee-Gees’ basis for improvement, let’s go back to 2021-22, when Joly – who was an Ottawa assistant coach since 2016 – took over for Andy Sparks, who retired after 13 years. 

The Gee-Gees changed their defensive structure when Joly took over. They’ve changed their offensive structure as well in the past few seasons. 

Gone were the days of a primarily high-low offence where they would feed the ball into the post. The team might still do that if there’s a mismatch to be had but now it’s much more about movement.

The players move, the ball moves and the offence flows more freely. The guards are more involved, according to Joly “It’s more open,” she added. “Everyone touches the ball.” 

Ottawa has the experience at the position to do so. Saumure is in her fourth season while Nadine Katumbayi is in her third. Then there’s OUA All-Star Natsuki Szczokin…

Joly remembers when Szczokin was in her first season, they had to push to use her voice more. Now, in her fourth year, she’s naturally doing so. She’s taking on a leadership role. 

You can see her dictating the play, reading defences and finding open teammates or scoring. She leads the Gee-Gees with 15.8 points on average and is second behind Saumure in assists. Joly has seen how she plays with more control than before. Joly has seen her basketball IQ grow over time. 

Coming out of timeouts and in pauses in game action, Szczokin will tell Joly what’s going on the floor – a link between the players and the coaching staff in a sense. She’s calling some of the plays on her own – which she didn’t do before. She’s using her voice. 

She’s also understood by heart the restructuring of the offence. Szczokin took some time to understand the reads and plays in Ottawa’s new system but she’s gotten the hang of it. 

“She’s able to run the offence better on her own without me having to tell her what she needs to run,” Joly said. 

As Szczokin has grown, so have the rest of the Gee-Gees. It’s been a journey for this team with so many new players. It’s been tough as well. 

Joly keeps telling her players – especially the new ones – to shoot and play with confidence. She knows how difficult it can be for new players to do so. She tells McCarthy: take the shots you’re supposed to take. When she turns down those shots, Joly starts asking questions. 

Perhaps Joly saw the potential in the 6 foot forward from Grand Falls, New Brunswick before she came to Ottawa. Perhaps she saw the size and shooting McCarthy has, the amazing athlete she is. 

McCarthy didn’t play much in her two seasons at North Dakota, averaging just over four minutes of playing time. She played for the Fredericton Freeze of the Maritime Women’s Basketball Association this past summer. When fall came, she was averaging 25 minutes a game for the Gee-Gees, making an impact all around. 

When she arrived on the team, Joly noticed her sense of humour, how she gets along with everyone. “A great addition off the floor,” the head coach calls her. 

McCarthy showed some of that potential against McMaster as they went to her in the third quarter. We want you to shoot it, they told her. So, she did so, shots, taking and hitting those shots as Ottawa increased their lead. She finished with 12 points and three rebounds in 19 minutes. 

Joly’s seen her confidence grow as the season’s gone along. Now, it’s all about consistently well game by game – which her coach has confidence in her to do so. “It’s going to get there,” she said. 

Confidence and belief are a main factor for the team overall. Maybe some of that just comes with time. 

They knew the time it would take for the players to be familiar with each other. They went to Japan in August for some exhibition games. There was also team bonding as well. “That really helped our cohesion off the floor,” Joly said. “We’re [a] really really close team that way.” 

The players have gained cohesion on the floor as well. The Gee-Gees have won eight straight games after their regular season opening loss to Guelph and sit fourth in the OUA. 

Going into this past weekend games against York and McMaster, Joly thought the team would be tired having been four of the last five weekends. 

However, they pushed through by running and scoring in transition against York – one of their strengths with Saumure and Sczockzin. They did so in the third quarter against McMaster. “It’s still not consistent enough to my liking,” Joly noted. “But again, we’re working on it. Just building confidence game after game.” 

Therein lies the crux of where the Gee-Gees are. Yes, they’ve improved and grown a lot since the start of the season. But there’s still so much more to go…

Some of that comes from defensive execution. It’s a process for the new players to understand what they’re expecting from them defensively. Joly knows they have to be better defensively with repetition and building confidence. They have to be more team-orientated defensively and focused on the players they’re guarding. 

Offensively, it’s about belief. The coaches tell the players to shoot the ball when they’re open. “Because we’re hoping, we know that they’re going to make it,” Joly noted. 

The Gee-Gees host the defending OUA and national champion Carleton Ravens to close out the semester. If there’s an example of top-tier team defence, they can look to their cross-town rivals. 

Joly knows the game will be a challenge – but one they’re looking forward to. She’s proud of them, how hard they’ve worked and how far they’ve come. How far they can still go as well. 

Maybe if you close your eyes, you can see them shooting those open shots with confidence against Carleton. You can see them running the floor consistently. You can see them executing defensively. Maybe, just maybe, if they do all that, you can picture them coming out with the victory – which would be their biggest of the season. 

It would mark their biggest improvement of all. 

Featured Image: Greg Kolz/University of Ottawa Athletics