BY SCOTT HADDOW
In only her third season, Laurentian
University women's basketball forward Cassandra Carpenter has
established herself as a star and as one the elite athletes in
the country.
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As a third-year player,
Laurentian's Cassandra Carpenter has become a dominant
force in the OUA. |
Relatively unknown when she broke into the
Ontario University Athletics (OUA) basketball ranks three
seasons ago, Carpenter has been on a constant rise since her
first game.
After a fantastic rookie campaign, which saw
her become an instant powerhouse on the court, Carpenter copped
the OUA East and the Canadian Interuniversity Sport CIS) Rookie
of the Year awards. She also earned an OUA East Second Team
All-Star berth. The Kanata native also made the CIS All-Rookie
squad and was named Laurentian's Female Athlete of the
Year.
Last season, Carpenter was even better,
lighting up the OUA in a record-breaking fashion.
Carpenter set a new single season scoring
mark in the OUA with 427 points. The record didn't last though,
as a Brock University player, who had one more game to play,
broke Carpenter's record a few nights later.
Nonetheless, the forward finished the 2004-05
campaign with 19.4 points-per-game, which was good for second
in the OUA and fifth in the CIS. The crafty player also grabbed
an average of 10.5 rebounds per game, which put her first in
the OUA and second in the CIS.
For all her efforts, the five-foot-eleven
Lady Vee was again a big winner at annual awards banquets.
Carpenter was named the OUA East
Defensive Player of the Year, OUA East Player
of the Year, CIS First All-Star member and again, the
Laurentian Female Athlete of the Year.
In a March 2005 interview, Laurentian women's
head coach Mike Clarke stated Carpenter had unlimited
potential.
"It's scary for the opposition that she can
get better," said Clarke. "Cassandra's potentially an awesome
shooter, but she needs to work on her
technique. It's exciting as a coach because
you don't get somebody with her type of potential very often.
Anything you give Cassandra skill-wise to
master, she picks up right away."
Carpenter is again rolling along with the
Lady Vees, putting up big numbers again. In a recent game
against the University of Toronto, the human
kinetics student scored 35 points and 15
rebounds during a big win.
She also set an OUA and CIS record for making
the most free throw attempts, going 21 for 28 on the
line.
Carpenter has positioned herself to take a
run at OUA scoring career marks now. She has 497 career
rebounds so far as of Friday, Dec 9, only 277
rebounds back from the all time leader,
McMaster/Queen's Sarah Cameron (774).
Carpenter is twelfth on the all time scoring
list with 941 points as of Dec. 9 The all time mark is 1359,
held by York's Natasha Subban.
There's no doubt Carpenter is a potential
National Team player thanks to her tremendous efforts in the
OUA.
The Laurentian basketball teams are now on
break for the holidays. They resume action at the end of
December to play in the University of British Columbia
Tournament in Vancouver from Dec. 28-30.
The women's squad was selected as the
Laurentian Team of the Month for November. The Lady Vees are
second in the OUA East Division with a 6-3 record.
