Queen’s Golden Gaels moved to within two points of the East division lead Saturday night with an 89-62 win over the Laurentian Voyageurs in an Ontario University Athletics women’s basketball game in the Athletics and Recreation Centre.

Liz Boag scored 19 points to lead the Gaels, who won for the fourth game in a row to improve their record to 6-3, just a game behind the Ryerson Rams, who defeated McMaster 80-77 on Saturday.

Emily Hazlett had 17 points and seven rebounds for Queen’s, which also got double-digit scoring from Robyn Pearson, who scored 12 points, and Andrea Priamo and rookie Marianne Alarie, who each scored 10.

For Alarie, who played 21 minutes coming off the bench, it was a career-best performance.

A 13-2 run in the middle of the first quarter allowed the Gaels to break open a one-point game, and a 29-8 second quarter, during which Hazlett scored nine points, allowed the home team to take a 55-17 lead into the second half.

Devenae Bryce and Adrienne Moreau scored 12 points apiece for Laurentian, which fell to 4-5.

Friday night at the ARC, the Gaels began the post-Christmas portion of their conference schedule by whipping the winless Nipissing Lakers 90-34. Jenny Wright led Queen’s with 15 points while Maddie Morris, Robyn Pearson and Hazlett scored 12 points apiece.

It was the best performance of a young intercollegiate career for Morris, a rookie from Seeleys Bay.

Nipissing didn’t score in the first four and a half minutes of the game but the Gaels led just 19-13 at the end of the first quarter. A 24-3 run to start the second period put Queen’s in command.

Clare Abbott, a rookie guard from Whitehorse, led all scorers in the losing effort, with 20 points, a career-best effort by seven points. Nipissing, 0-8, came to town with just eight players.

The Gaels, who raised more than $3,100 in their annual Shoot for the Cure game, resume play Saturday in Toronto, where they will face the 2-7 York Lions.

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Queen’s men, meanwhile, gained a split of their weekend games, bowing 85-76 to Laurentian Saturday night after defeating Nipissing 90-63 on Friday.

Saturday’s defeat ended a three-game winning streak for Queen’s, 3-6, leaving the Gaels four points behind second-place York in the East division.

Sukhpreet Singh, with 18 points, and Cy Samuels, who came off the bench to score 14, led Queen’s, which committed 22 turnovers in the game.

The Gaels led by as much as eight points late in the first quarter, and by three points, 47-44, at halftime, but the teams were tied 62-62 going into the final period. A three-point basket by rookie Tanner Graham put Queen’s ahead early, but back-to-back baskets by Sam Hirst 23 seconds apart gave Laurentian the lead. Queen’s got it back on a 9-0 run that included a three-pointer by Holy Cross grad Greg Faulkner.

The Gaels led 74-70 with 3:47 to play when their shooting touch suddenly abandoned them. In a game where they would be successful on 50 per cent of their shots from the field, the Gaels missed five shots in a row and turned the ball over three times as the visitors scored 15 straight points to secure the win.

Patrick Street scored 12 points for Queen’s, while Ryall Stroud scored 10 points and pulled down eight rebounds. Hirst and Tychon Carter-Newman each scored 23 points for Laurentian, while Carter-Newman grabbed nine rebounds before fouling out of the game.

Second-year guard Mike Mullins of Burlington Saturday was named winner of the Marc Alessio Memorial Scholarship, which has been presented annually since 2010 in memory of the former varsity basketball player.

Alessio played for Queen’s 1987-89. He was teaching abroad when he was killed in Madagascar in 2009 at the age of 43.

Friday night against Nipissing, Mike Shoveller—whose father, Bruce, was a teammate of Alessio at Queen’s—scored 21 points and collected 12 rebounds to lead the Gaels to the lopsided win.

Singh and Street, who were both returning to the lineup after missing virtually all of the pre-Christmas portion of the schedule with injuries, both contributed immediately, as Singh scored 16 points and Street added 13. Stroud scored 14 points for the Gaels, with six rebounds.

Marvin Ngonadi and Marcus Clennon scored 12 points each for winless Nipissing, which shot just 29 per cent from the field and turned the ball over 17 times, changes of possession that led to 14 Queen’s points.

A three-point basket by Nipissing’s Jordan Campbell four minutes into the second quarter allowed the Lakers to close to 29-23 but Faulkner answered with a three-point shot of his own on Queen’s next possession, launching the Gaels on an 11-5 run that gave them a double-digit lead that would slowly grow for the remainder of the game. Queen’s led 49-35 at halftime.

Shoveller had three baskets in the pivotal run, including one from beyond the three-point arc.

The Gaels resume play Saturday night when they visit York.

Anyone who wishes to donate to the Alessio scholarship fund can visit www.givetoqueens.ca/mbasketball.