SHERBROOKE, Que. – The Bishop's Gaiters women's basketball team, winners of four of their past six games, will look to continue their momentum this weekend as they take on the No. 1-ranked, and league-leading McGill Martlets in a home-and-home series. The Gaiters are 4-5 and alone in third place in the RSEQ, three-and-a-half games back of McGill, who has a 7-1 mark. The series gets underway Friday at 6 p.m. in Lennoxville, before heading to Montreal for a 4 p.m. start on Saturday afternoon.
 
Last time out:
Bishop's (11-8, 4-5 RSEQ) picked up a sweep of the Concordia Stingers in their home-and-home series last week. On Thursday, a league-high and career-high 36 points by Mara Marchizotti (Buenos Aires, Argentina/) led the Gaiters to an 81-67 win in the always-cozy Concordia Gym, while on Saturday a balanced attack – led by 21 points from Edith Noblecilla (Guayaquil, Ecuador/Santo Domingo de Guzmain) and Ashley Milhomme (Repentigny, Que./Collège Montmorency) – gave Bishop's and 81-68 victory in the friendly confines of the Mitchell Gym. For her efforts, Marchizotti was named the RSEQ Athlete of the Week on Tuesday.
 
McGill (16-2, 7-1 RSEQ) was idle last week. They swept Concordia two weeks ago, winning by scores of 70-55 and 63-51.
 
When last we met:
The Martlets outscored Bishop's 19-9 in the third quarter to put the game away and cruise to a 74-51 win over the Gaiters at the Mitchell Gym on Nov. 25. Alex Kiss-Rusk led the Martlets with 16 points, while Gladys Hakizimana had 15 and Frédérique Potvin and Marie-Love Michel each had 13. For Bishop's, Noblecilla and Milhomme led with 12 points each. McGill shot 41 per cent from the field, while the Gaiters were held to only 29.5 per cent shooting.
 
Leading Ladies
Bishop's
Mara Marchizotti (Buenos Aires, Argentina/) is now sixth in the conference in scoring, after her 41 points last weekend, with an average of 13.7 points per game. She is now 45^th overall in Canada. With 7.7 rebounds per game, she is now fourth in the league, and her 1.4 blocks per game are second in the province and 11^th nationally.
Marie-Evrardine Berrouette (Montreal, Que./Dawson College) has moved into third place on the conference rebounding list, with 7.7 per contest, and she is fourth in steals with 1.9 per game. Her 0.443 field-goal percentage is sixth in the league.
Edith Noblecilla (Guayaquil, Ecuador/Santo Domingo de Guzmain) is leading the province in both giving and taking away. She leads the conference with 5.0 assists per game (fourth overall in Canada) and 2.4 steals per game (15^th in the country). With 11.6 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, she currently sits 11^th and 12^th in the province, respectively.
 
McGill
Alex Kiss-Rusk is third in the conference with 15.8 points per game and is the league's leading rebounder, with 11.3 boards per contest.
Frédérique Potvin is right behind Kiss-Rusk on the scoring list, with her 14.3 points per game putting her in fourth place. She is also second in steals, with 2.1 per game, and third in assists (3.3).
 
Stand-Up
McGill is along in first place in the league at 7-1, a game and a half ahead of Laval (5-2). The Gaiters (4-5) are a half-game ahead of Concordia (3-5) and 2.5 up on UQAM (2-8) and will be looking to put some space between themselves and the bottom of the league.
 
Keep your E-Y-E on M-E-B:
Rookie forward Marie-Evrardine Berrouette (Montreal, Que./Dawson College) has quickly made her mark in the RSEQ. The Dawson College grad grabbed 11 rebounds and scored nine points in her first-ever league game, on Nov. 4 against UQAM. Since then, she has scored in double figures three times, and recorded her second career double-double on Saturday, when she scored 10 points and had a career high 16 rebounds. She leads all rookies in the league in rebounding, with 8.4 per game, and is averaging 8.9 points per game in the regular season.
 
Save the dates:
A makeup date has been determined for the Gaiters' game against Laval, which was postponed back on Jan. 5. That game will now be played on Sunday, Feb. 11 in Quebec City, with tip off set for 1 p.m. As a result, the Gaiters home game that weekend, which was set for Saturday, Feb. 10, has been moved to Tuesday, Feb. 13. Tip-off for that game remains at 6 p.m.
 
Coach's Corner
On McGill:
They're a tremendous team. They're No. 1 in the country, defending national champions, 16-2 overall, 7-1 in the conference, coached by Ryan Thorne, a former Gaiter. They're well-coached and they probably have the top player in the country in Alex Kiss-Rusk. I think Mara matches up well with her but she's a helluva player, she's patient, she runs the show for them. Frederique Potvin is a tremendous player. You've got those two players. Rusk played at Virginia Tech, Potvin played at Pittsburgh – both major Division I programs. They're the engine that drives the cog. Most of their stuff is built around those two players, but they have clearly defined roles and their other players are unbelievably well-disciplined, they do not take any poor shots, they attack matchups. They have a plan and they stick with it. They force you to make mistakes and they have very limited empty possessions, either defensively or offensively, so the window for error is very small against them.
 
On the team's momentum coming into the weekend:
"We've beaten four Top-10 teams this year. We beat Concordia twice when they were tenth. We beat Ryerson when they were No. 10. We beat Laval, they were ranked fifth or sixth at the time. We look at this game as a challenge for us - the No. 1 team in the country. Obviously, we don't feel like we have any pressure. It's back-to-back and we have them at home the first night. I believe the girls have had a great week of practice. Those two games against Concordia were tremendous for our confidence. What we've talked about this week is the concept of 2-0. We went 2-0 at our Christmas tournament, which led to 0-2 vs. UQAM, which led to 2-0 vs. Concordia. We've got to learn to deal with 2-0. We get a chance to test ourselves, challenge ourselves, engage ourselves and see where we're at against the best in the country. I'm expecting our girls to come out and play their best game of the year tomorrow night. They're starting to gel as a team. I wouldn't say we're peaking but we're practicing at a high level. We're playing at a high level and now we get to see where we're really at against the best in the country."
 
Tickets Get your Tickets!
Tickets to Friday night's doubleheader are available online at www.gaiters.ca/tickets or game day at the ticket booth located next to the entrance to Mitchell Gym
 
Live Look
Watch Friday's game from Mitchell Gym at: www.gaiters.ca/webcast
Watch Saturday's game on McGill's stream at:  https://portal.stretchinternet.com/mcgill/
 
Next Up:
After the home-and-home with the Martlets, the Gaiters will have a bye week. They are next in action on Thursday, Feb. 8, when they visit the UQAM Citadins underground in Montreal.
 
Social Corner
Stay up-to-date with everything Bishop's Gaiters at www.gaiters.ca or on social media using @BishopsGaiters and #GaiterNation.