Approaching the end of a nightmarish five-game stretch of its Ontario University Athletics schedule, the Brock Badgers women’s basketball team was able to celebrate a 80-66 home victory Friday night over the previously unbeaten Queen’s Gaels.

The mood of the players was ecstatic as head coach Mike Rao addressed them in the locker room after they had snapped their three-game losing streak.

“It was two weeks of hard work and my God,” he said to loud cheering. “I don’t know what to say. Wow. That was beyond my expectations. We played so hard and we really played smart in the second half. That’s the kind of basketball I want. You guys were completely unselfish. Nobody cared who the hell scored but you all scored.”

All five starters scored in double digits for the Badgers (3-3) and key contributions off the bench came from Keren Tshinyama Kasonga, Ilijana Vukovic, Madison Macinnis and Shailah Adams.

“It was great. They played really hard, they played smart and they played really good basketball,” Rao said afterwards. “It’s coming. People are piecing it together.”

The aforementioned stretch of five games, which concludes Saturday at 6 p.m. with a game at the Meridian Centre against the McMaster Marauders, featured five teams with a cumulative record of 27-3 heading into Friday night’s action, including unbeaten Toronto Metropolitan, national champion Carleton and Queen’s (not any more).

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