Axewomen clinch second place in AUS standings with win over X

ANTIGONISH, N.S. – The Acadia Axewomen defeated the STFX X-Women 80-62 Saturday night at the Saputo Centre in the final regular-season game for both teams. 

The game finished off home-and-home matches as Acadia defeated the X-Women handily on Wednesday night in Wolfville by a 91-50 margin. The win gives the Axewomen a second-place seeding in the coming AUS Championship weekend.

The X-Women got off to a much better start in tonight's game as each squad traded 19 points in the first quarter. 

Olivia Moller hit a three-pointer for Acadia midway through the frame to give her team an 11-7 advantage but the X-Women clawed back. 

Kimberly Kingsbury and Tahmala Thorpe netted back-to-back three-pointers and Kingsbury closed out the quarter with a pair of free throws to even the score at 19-19. She scored 11 of STFX's points in the opening quarter. 

Despite struggling from the perimeter in the second quarter, the X-Women managed to keep pace with the Axewomen and trailed by three points, 28-25 with four minutes to play. 

They had their first lead of the game, 29-28 a minute later. 

The Axewomen stormed back and reversed the lead to 36-31 in their favour with a minute and a half to play but a Kingsbury jumper at the buzzer tied the game once again, 36-36 heading into the halftime break. 

Kingsbury continued to have the hot scoring hands for the X-Women as she closed out the first half with an impressive 23 points.  

Jayda Veinot lead the Axewomen with nine points in the opening half. 

The Axewomen came out a different team in the third quarter as their offense sparked and they went on an 18-0 run to go up 56-39 midway through the quarter.  

Veinot netted 17 points for the Axewomen in the third as they built up a comfortable 72-49 lead after 30 minutes of play. Kingsbury was held to four points in the frame as her squad was outscored 36-13. 

The fourth quarter saw the Axewomen hold on to their comfortable 20-point lead throughout the final frame as the X-Women could not mount a comeback. 

The final score closed out at 80-62 for the Axewomen as Subway player of the game Veinot scored 28 points. 

Elizabeth Beals-Iseyemi netted 16 points for Acadia and had nine rebounds, while Sophie Atkinson scored 13 and also hauled in nine rebounds. 

Kingsbury finished with a game-high 31 points and had a double-double night for X with 11 rebounds. Kira Atherley added 10 and Thorpe scored nine and had four rebounds. 

With the win, Acadia finishes the season with an 11-4 record and second place in the AUS standings (standings were based on winning percentage since the schedule was not balanced or completed because of COVID cancelled games).  

StFX wraps up the regular season with a 2-14 record in seventh place in the AUS standings. At the upcoming AUS championship, they will face the No. 2 seed Acadia Axewomen on Thursday, March 17th at 1:00 pm at the Halifax Scotiabank Centre. 

The complete Subway AUS Championship schedule can be found by clicking here. The complete tournament schedule will be updated Sunday as final seedings are confirmed. 

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Recap courtesy Krista McKenna, STFX Athletics