SHERBROOKE, Que. – The Bishop's Gaiters head into the home stretch of the 2016-17 season by hosting the annual Shoot for the Cure game at the Mitchell Gym on Saturday. The No. 1-ranked Laval Rouge et Or will provide the opposition, with the game set to tip off at the special time of 8 p.m. The Gaiters will be wearing their special pink jerseys for the occasion.
 
Fans at Saturday's game are encouraged to buy special Shoot for the Cure T-shirts for $10, with the entire proceeds going to the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation. Shoot for the Cure is a long-standing initiative of the U SPORTS Women's Basketball Coaches' Association, and had its genesis at Bishop's, as it was started by the Gaiters' then-women's coach, Rod Gilpin.
 
The Gaiters (7-12, 2-10 RSEQ) dropped a pair of games to McGill last weekend, suffering a 75-73 loss in Montreal on Feb. 2, and a 68-59 setback on Saturday night in Lennoxville. With four games left in the conference season, the Gaiters sit two games back of Concordia (11-11, 4-8 RSEQ) in the race for the fourth and final playoff berth. Laval, McGill and the UQAM Citadins have already clinched playoff spots.
 
Laval (21-2, 11-1 RSEQ) clinched the regular-season pennant last week, after a sweep of the Concordia Stingers. On Thursday, they narrowly avoided an upset with an 83-77 (OT) win over the Stingers in Montreal. They followed that up with a nice 95-69 win in Quebec City on Saturday. The Rouge et Or are currently on a seven-game winning streak.
 
This will be the fourth meeting of the year between the Gaiters and Rouge et Or, with Laval taking all three of the matchups to date.
 
Fourth-year point guard Edith Noblecilla (Guayaquil, Ecuador/Santo Domingo de Guzmain) continues to sit second in Canada with 5.0 assists per game, trailing only Jerika Baldin of Lakehead, who has 6.8 assists per game. Noblecilla has 10.2 points and 6.0 rebounds per game.
The Gaiters' leading scorer and rebounder remains Mara Marchizotti (Buenos Aires, Argentina), who is sixth in the conference with 12.7 points per game and fourth in the loop with 7.1 boards per game. Sophomore Ashley Milhomme (Repentigny, Que. /Collège Montmorency) is 11^th in Quebec with 10.5 points per game.
 
Laval has the league's top-rated offence, scoring 72 points per game. They have four players with double-figure scoring averages, led by Gabrielle Girard's 13.6 points per game.  Jane Gagné (12.4 ppg), Sarah-Jane Marois (12.3 ppg) and Raphaelle Côté (11.8 ppg) are the other Rouge et Or in double figures.
 
For fans who can't make it to the Mitchell Gym, but still wish to support the cause, a Ruban Rose event page has been set up here for online donations.
 
Saturday's game will be webcast at www.gaiters.ca/webcast.