REDS grab narrow come-from-behind win over Axemen in exhibition

FREDERICTON, NB - The UNB REDS fought from behind to beat the Acadia Axemen 87-80 in preseason play Saturday night at UNB's Richard J. Currie Center.

UNB was down by as much as 13 in the first quarter but slowly chipped away at the Axemen lead.

The REDS took the lead midway through the third quarter and never really looked back, extending their advantage by as much as 12 before settling on the seven-point margin of victory.

"I saw first-year guys playing with a lot of confidence and communicating like they've been together for a couple of years," said REDS head coach Joe Salerno. "I'm looking forward to seeing that grow over the first part of the season. Guys like Marcus Barnes, he's 18 years old, he had a huge game tonight, and all our veteran guys on the bench tonight supporting that, that's what I loved seeing the most tonight."

Barnes (Kitchener, ON) led all scorers with 26 points. He added six rebounds and four assists.

Norm Burry (Grafton, NB) recorded a double-double for the second straight night, scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

"Norm is going to be the engine," said Salerno. "He had a tremendous rookie year and put in the work this past summer to get better, we're going to lean on Norm an awful lot this year and I think he's ready for that responsibility."

Alex Muise (Halifax, NS) led the visiting Axemen, scoring 16 points and 11 assists, while Thomas MacDonald (Rothesay, NB) had 16 points and seven rebounds before fouling out of the game.

"Last night (Friday), six of our guys were true freshmen, all had little nerves, you could see it last night, everyone was a little nervous, a little jittery, and I knew once we got that out of the way that we'd play a better basketball game, which I thought we did tonight," said Salerno.

The weekend of preseason action at UNB concludes on Sunday with the Axemen taking on the Lakehead Thunderwolves at 12:00pm. The REDS will face their cross-campus rivals, the St. Thomas Tommies, of the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association, at 4:00 pm.

RECAP BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics

PHOTOS BY: James West/for UNB Athletics