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Boag and Dixon shine in 80-52 playoff win over Laurentian




KINGSTON, Ont. (February 25, 2015) - The Queen's Gaels recovered from a slow start to finish with a dominant win, 80-52 over the Laurentian Voyageurs in OUA women's basketball playoff action from the ARC at Queen's University and will advance to the next round of the playoffs.

Queen's next will travel to Waterloo to take on the No.6 Laurier Golden Hawks at the Athletic Complex Gym. The Gaels who finished as the seventh seed in the OUA will look to take the upset over the second seeded and No.6 ranked in Canada Golden Hawks. For ticket information on the game at Laurier click here. If you can't catch the game live it will also be available live online at OUA.tv.



Liz Boag (Kingston, Ont.) made her final home game in the tricolour count as she finished with 19 points to lead all scorers and added four rebounds, four assists and three steals while sinking four from beyond the arc. Second year guard Abby Dixon (North Vancouver, B.C.) paced the Gaels in the first half scoring 12 of her 16 on the night in the opening 20 minutes. Just shy of a double-double on the night was Andrea Priamo (Guelph, Ont.) who finished with 13 points and nine rebounds in 22 minutes of action. The Voyageurs saw strong efforts from Devenae Bryce and Danielle Harris who each finished with 12 points for Laurentian.

"We had prepared as well as we could for what they do well and what we wanted to do against it," said head coach Dave Wilson after the game. "We struggled with the execution at the start but got more and more comfortable as they game went along and started putting more pressure on them. Our goal was to get them off the three point line. We made sure we ran at them and made them drive so they would have to pull up and shoot."

In the first quarter Laurentian took the lead with the first bucket of the game but post Priamo responded with a successful three point play after getting her hook shot to fall from the paint and hitting her free-throw after being fouled. The two teams began trading buckets and at one point went shot for shot with four straight three pointers, two from each side and two from Dixon for the Gaels. Boag joined in on the three-point party and the Gaels found themselves in front 16-14. Despite only shooting 31% from the floor the Gaels finished the first quarter with a 20-14 lead with the help of six turnovers from Laurentian to the Gaels three.

Queen's began to put their foot on the pedal in the second quarter as Dixon continued to shine starting with a three point shot then grabbing an assist as she found Emily Hazlett (Fredericton) who hit an open look three and Queen's took a 10 point advantage. Laurentian struggled from the floor shooting only 4-17 in the quarter which included one possession where they put up four attempts but could not convert. The Gaels great ball movement got Boag an open look and she made no mistake to make it 41-26 with a three pointer. Tricolour vets continued to shine as Boag found Bullard for three and the Gaels lead by 20 points 46-26 at the half.

To start the third the Voyageurs looked to cut into the large Gaels lead but could only cut the lead by a few points as the tricolour continued their sharp-shooting from beyond the arc. Queen's shooters went cold for a stretch late in the quarter but Laurentian could not capitalize. Boag then took over hitting a three and followed with a steal that she took down court for an uncontested lay-in. The Gaels headed to the fourth quarter with a 67-45 lead.

"Liz is that player that when you need something, it's Liz. She can relax everyone when she's on the floor and everybody feels comfortable when Liz is running the show."

Queen's closed out the Voyageurs in the fourth adding another 13 points compared to only seven for Laurentian to take the 80-52 victory.