Coming off a great effort in their season opener, the Nipissing Lakers women's basketball had a tougher time Saturday night as they faced the Carleton Ravens.

Entering the game coming off a loss, the Lakers got off to a tough start and couldn't recover, dropping the game 78-43 to close out the opening weekend of OUA play.

The Ravens jumped out to an early lead, up 21-9 after the first quarter and 41-16 at half-time.

Lakers head coach Marg Jones said the team had a plan in place for Saturday's matchup, but she said things didn't go as well as they wanted them to.

"On Saturday versus Carleton our defensive strategy was to focus on their post player Heather Lindsay, but it was not successful. We will make some major adjustments when we face Carleton once again in February," she said.

An improved second half saw the Lakers claw back into the game, but it was too little too late as the skilled Ravens sealed the win to improve to 2-0 and drop the Lakers to 0-2.

Jamie Soffer led the Nipissing attack with eight points, while Maeve Therriault, Claire Abbott, Michaela Branker and Alexe Wilson all added five points each.

Jones said the team had two game plans – one for Ottawa and one for Carleton – and while the plan against Carleton wasn't as successful as the team hoped, she was pleased with how things went when they took on Ottawa.

"Our game plan and game prep worked well for Ottawa.  We team defended the interior and held all-star post player 6-foot-3 Katherine Lemoine to three points for the game," Jones said of a highlight from Friday night. "Our pressure defense got the game to six points to begin the fourth, but we failed to close out on their shooters and two three-pointers early in the final quarter gave the Gee Gees all the momentum. That and some costly turnovers sealed the game."

Jones said while the results aren't positive yet, she did see things they can build on, plus getting players back from injury will help.

"The return of forwards Ali Czich and Sam Kordez to our lineup along with some minor adjustments will bolster our interior defense this coming weekend versus York and Queens," she said.

After starting on the road, Nipissing will return home for games against York Friday night, and Queens Saturday.