GUELPH, ON – There's at least one more night's worth of varsity basketball left in the W.F. Mitchell Centre.
 
Whether there's more than that will depend on what the Guelph Gryphons women's hoops team does on Saturday night.
 
The Gryphs lost a tough one on Friday at home, 71-69 to the McMaster Marauders. They led 64-56 with just under seven minutes left in the game, but couldn't hold on against their tough division rivals.
 
"They're a great team," Gryphs head coach Christin Dickenson said of the visitors, adding that she prefers to look at the bright side of Friday's outcome. She pointed out that when her squad visited Mac in November, they lost by 23 points.
 
"With the way we played them last time at their house, this is a really good bounce-back for us. We need to be playing better right now, and we are."
 
And that's absolutely a positive, given what's at stake. The Gryphs will play host to the Brock Badgers on Saturday at 6 p.m., with second place in the OUA Central Division standings – and a home playoff game – on the line.
 
If they lose to Brock, it will be their last game in the Mitchell Centre, which is being replaced by a new facility. They don't want to say goodbye just yet.
 
"We need to win tomorrow night to get a home playoff game here on Wednesday," Dickenson said. "If we play with the same effort and sense of urgency that we did tonight, tomorrow should be okay.
 
"Even though I was a Marauder, I know how hard it is to play here. I always played tough games here. But I have a great deal of pride now in what it means to be a Guelph Gryphon, and this court is a special place."
  Left-to-Right: Vanessa Rampado, Kate Yallin, Kate MacTavish, Barbara Inrig-Pieterse, Dana Van Balkom It was Senior Night on Friday, and five graduating seniors were honoured by the Gryphs after the game: fifth-year forward Kate MacTavish of Waterloo, ON, fifth-year guard Dana Van Balkom of Hamilton, ON, fourth-year guard Barbara Inrig-Pieterse of London, ON, and fourth-year forwards Katelyn Yallin of Port Colborne, ON, and Vanessa Rampado of Niagara Falls, ON.
 
All five played well with MacTavish scoring 12 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Van Balkom also had 12 points and collected seven boards. Rampado added 10 points while Inrig-Pieterse just missed a double, with nine points. Yallin, the youngest of five sisters to have all played varsity basketball for Guelph, scored three points.
 
"This group has done such an amazing job at helping me re-lay the foundation (of the program)," Dickenson said of her graduates.
 
"Back in 2004-05, this was an OUA championship team. They've helped me and they've helped this team revitalize itself so that we can work our way back to championship heights."
 
Bridget Atkinson had 18 points and six assists to lead the Gryphs, who trailed 32-31 at halftime and then erased a seven-point third-quarter deficit to carry a 55-54 margin into the final 10 minutes.
 
With the loss on Friday, Guelph's record drops to 10-8. The first-place Marauders end their regular season at 15-4. Brock's record is also 10-8.
 
But, whatever happens on Saturday, the Gryphs will be in the OUA playoffs, ending a two-year stretch without postseason play.
 
"This is a team that, this year, has decided to change their story," Dickenson said. "For us to be able to secure a playoff spot before the regular season ends was a very big goal for us, and the fact that we're starting to peak right now is a really positive sign.
 
"I'm just really proud that we're playing as well as we are heading into this stretch of our season."