WOLFVILLE, N.S. - Despite a strong start, the Axewomen fell 75-60 to the CIS No. 2 ranked and undefeated Saint Mary's squad in a rescheduled matchup Monday night. Abbey Duinker led the Axewomen with 25 points and ten rebounds in the loss and was Acadia's Subway Player of the Game.
The game opened up with a 7-2 Saint Mary's run but Acadia tightened up the reins on defense and kept the score close. Behind Duinker's eight points in the opening quarter, the score was 16-14 in favour of Saint Mary's heading into the second frame.
The Axewomen kept the score close until three costly turnovers with two minutes left in the second quarter resulted in a 12-3 Huskies' run that stretched the lead to 40-28 entering halftime. The high intensity defense that was present in the first slipped away from Acadia as AUS leading scorer Justine Colley caused a handful of frustrating moments for the Axewomen to end the frame.
Colley finished the second half off with two steals converted into layups and assisted the three baskets made prior to that. She finished with 16 points, five rebounds, five assists and five steals.
Colley, the reigning CIS player of the year and the CIS all-time career leader in points scored, added another milestone to her list of accomplishments. She becomes the first player in CIS women's basketball history to score over 2,300 career points.
Colley's 16 point effort tonight gives her at 2,314 career points with three games to play this season. She has led the Atlantic conference and the nation in scoring for the last three seasons and once again leads the conference with a 21.1 points per game average.
Colley's teammate, Rachelle Coward, extended Saint Mary's lead 62-45 heading into the fourth quarter. Coward had ten points in both the second and third quarter and finished with a game high 32 points, shooting 7-12 from the distance arc and earning the Subway Player of the Game honours.
Acadia played a strong fourth quarter only allowing Saint Mary's to score 13 points in the final frame, but they were unable to overcome the deficit from the middle two quarters and fell 75-60. First year forward, Emily Macleod played a strong game for the Axewomen, scoring 11 points on 5-8 from the field.
Despite shooting 2-8 Maya Macatumpag also played strong for Acadia, getting to the line six times, scoring nine points, grabbing four boards and tying Colley with a game-high five steals.
Acadia heads to St. FX on Friday night for a four point game before continuing on to Cape Breton to play the Capers Saturday afternoon. Saint Mary's will head home to face UNB on Friday and then host Memorial for a pair of games the following weekend to round out their regular season.