Hoopqueens: A Statistical Analysis for the First Time
- elisilverstone1
- Mar 2
- 5 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Hoopqueens (HQ) is the first paid Canadian professional women's basketball league. It’s a competitive summer league filled with overseas Canadian pros and the best of the best when it comes to Canadian U Sports. Women's basketball is growing across North America, including a recent surge bringing the Toronto Tempo, the WNBA’s newest expansion team, to Canada. Hoopqueens was founded in 2020. Now, six years later, the Tempo are joining the mix to make this the most exciting summer for women's basketball in Toronto to date.
“A lot of people speak about empowering women and showcasing women's basketball, but Hoopqueens is legit, like they're really about it,” said Kiara Leveridge, a U Sports star at York University who’s played in Hoopqueens the past two summers.
Last summer, Northscore tested out being the stat provider and the only location where you could access Hoopqueens stats. Northscore hadn’t publicly launched yet, so the stats were kept private. But in anticipation of Northscore being live for the upcoming summer, we’re going to dive into last year’s stats here.
Team Tide
Record: 3-1
Result: Lost in Finals
While shooting efficiency is extremely important, if you can rebound your misses and score off of them, you still accomplished the goal while also slowly starting to break the will of your opponent. That was the Tide’s game. Despite ranking last in field goal percentage (32 per cent) and three point percentage (23 per cent), they ranked first in offensive rebounds (21.8) and second chance points (13.8). The cost of doing business when you’re often in the paint rebounding is the physicality that comes with it. The Tide didn't mind. They attempted a league-high 21 free throws a game, making 13 of them per game at a league high 67 per cent clip.
The Tide also boasted the league's leading scorer, Tineya Hilton, whose 24 points per game was 4.6 more than the next closest player. Anything she missed, Nehita Oko-Obo cleaned up, with her 13.2 rebounds and 58.3 per cent field goal percentage leading the league.
Having Hilton and Oko-Obo and a team that bought in on rebounding and second chances was great, but when the summer wrapped up, they fell four points short in the championship game.
Team Blaze
Record 1-3
Result: Lost 61-68 in semifinals to the Tide
The Blaze were an efficient team who were able to cause havoc on defense and control the game at their pace on offense. They led the league in forced turnovers (19.2) and points off turnovers (31), causing chaos and capitalizing on it. On offense, they led the league in assists (13.8) and were second in points in the paint (31.5), getting the ball to Hannah Sunley-Paisley down low where they wanted to run their offense from.
Just like every summer league, rosters consist of players who don't have much experience or time to practice with each other, but Team Blaze were able to quickly form roles and excel in them.
For scoring they looked to York University product Kiara Leveridge who’s 15.2 points was good for third in the league. Leveridge’s three produced the highest scoring U Sports player in a league full of pros and other U Sports stars.
“It comes from like my coaches and like the people that I grew up with, and just the installment of being tough as a basketball player. It's like, regardless of my team's up or down, I'm going out there and I'm going to leave it all on the floor. It comes from gratitude and just being able to have the ability to play basketball,” said Leveridge.
Brittney English facilitated the offense from the point-guard position, averaging 2.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game. Sunley-Paisley was their main source of rebounding, averaging 12 a game, good for second in the league. If they needed a three, they looked to Lisa Tesson who knocked them down at a 37.5% clip, also good for second in the league.
Eight of their 10 players averaged at least one steal, which points to the depth of their team (18 bench points a game was second in HQ) and how uncomfortable they made other offenses. Unfortunately, their lack of a three-point shot (league worst with six makes a game) caused them to fall by seven points to Team Tide in the semifinals.
Team Charge
Record: 2-2
Result: Lost 61-73 in semifinals to the Reign
The Charge were a gritty, deep team that made all the small plays that lead to winning basketball. They were a young squad, led mainly by three U Sports stars in Concordia’s Victoria Lawrence, Queens’ Kiyara Letlow and Brock’s Angeline Campbell. Their bench did a great job of supporting them, leading the league in bench points (20.5). They excelled on the defensive side of the ball, leading the league in steals (12) which mainly came from Lawrence and her league-leading 3.7 steals.
Team Reign
Result: 2-2
Result: Won championship 58-54 over the Tide
If there were betting odds for HQ, Team Reign would have been a pretty solid favourite going into the playoffs. They were an offensive powerhouse, leading the league in points (71.8), field goal percentage (40%) and three point percentage (33%), running their offense through Lashae Dwyer and the fastbreak.
Dwyer was second in the league in points per game (19.2) and first in assists per game (4.6) and a lot of those stats came when she pushed the pace in transition. Dwyer, despite being one of the shorter players on the court at 5’ 6”, averaged 9 rebounds a game, the third highest mark in the league. She also averaged 3.4 steals, the second highest mark in the league. So with the ball in the hands of the very quick and athletic Dwyer right as the possession started, they could get out and run the floor. Team Reign led the league in fast break points at 12.6.
The Reign also followed the trend of basketball in the last decade that incentivizes three-point shots or shots close to the net, believing that the mid range is a low percentage shot. The Reign made the most three’s in the league at 8.6 per game last summer and led in points in the paint as well at 36.8. The thought process being shots attempted in the paint go in at the highest rate and if you’re going to take a jump shot, you may as well go behind the three-point line where the point reward is greater. Out of the top five all time NBA team single season leaders in three pointers attempted per season, all five have made the playoffs, three have been to the conference finals, and one has won the NBA finals (2023-24 Celtics).
Hoopqueens will enter season six this summer in Toronto, and fans can now access stats on Northscore to compare the eye- test to the numbers.
Comments