WOLFVILLE, N.S. - The first place Memorial Sea-Hawks outscored the Acadia Axewomen 86-72 on Saturday evening in Wolfville.
Acadia came out strong in the first quarter, going on a 9-0 run before the Sea-Hawks made their first basket. However, Memorial battled their way back into the game and had the score tied 19-19 after the opening quarter.
Acadia's Haley McDonald (Port Williams, N.S.) contributed 10 points on 4/5 shooting from the field in the first frame, including two threes.
McDonald took over in the second quarter, putting up eight points in the first two minutes. Despite McDonald's stellar first-half performance, the Sea-Hawks were able to keep up the pressure and stay with the Axewomen.
At halftime, Acadia held onto a one-point lead, 40-39.
The Axewomen struggled in the second half, allowing the Sea-Hawks a double-digit lead they would maintain for the remainder of the match.
Memorial's Ines Salat Margarit (Barcelona, Spain), Alana Short (Barrie, Ont.), and Haille Nickerson (Grimsby, Ont.) all had 14+ points entering the fourth quarter.
The Sea-Hawks led 64-54 after three quarters.
Nickerson tallied another nine points early on in the fourth quarter and put the Sea-Hawks up by 15 with 6:30 left on the clock. She led her team for 33 points and was named the Subway Player of the Game.
The depth of the Sea-Hawks began to show as more and more of their bench players were appearing on the scoresheet. Memorial took the first game of the back-to-back series by a score of 86-72.
Acadia's scoring was spread thin, relying on McDonald for 34 points - almost half of what the whole team posted. Nobody was surprised to hear McDonald named as Acadia's Player of the Game.
Axewoman Mia Roberts (Victoria B.C.) and Alana Short (Barrie, Ont.) of the Sea-Hawks both recorded 10+ points and rebounds for the only two double-doubles of the game.
"Our energy was good, I thought our 'try' was a lot better today than last week, but we need to see way more execution of the game plan for tomorrow. It is particularly frustrating because of how we started the game, with really solid execution against them. We also need far more balanced production across the roster," noted Acadia's head coach Len Harvey following the game about his team's performance
"Memorial is a difficult team to deal with as they do a good job of attacking you off the bounce and then either drawing fouls or kicking to the appropriate read on the perimeter. We need to do a better job of executing the plan defensively," added Harvey
The two teams hit the court tomorrow at 1:00 pm for the second of two games this weekend against each other.
Contributed by Theodore Giesen, Acadia Athletics Communications