Axewomen season ends with loss to Sea-Hawks

Friday night's AUS Basketball Championships doubleheader was led by the women's quarterfinal matchup between the third-ranked Acadia Axewomen and sixth-seeded Memorial University Sea-Hawks at the Scotiabank Arena.

In the tournament's first true upset, the Sea-Hawks handed the Axewomen a 71-68 loss to move on to the AUS Women's Basketball Championship semifinal on Saturday night. Awaiting Memorial in that semifinal game is the second-ranked UNB Reds with the winner moving on to the AUS championship final. Game time is set for 6:30pm.

The tournament will now feature an Acadia-less semifinal on the women's side for the first time since the 2014-15 season.

Memorial struggled from the field initially, shooting just over 25% in the first half. On the other side of the floor, the Axewomen shot over 51%. Despite that, the Sea-Hawks found themselves down just 10 points going into the break.

Which was key, because the Sea-Hawks were able to find their stroke and chip away at the 10-point deficit in the third quarter. Alana Short (Barrie, Ont.) and Alyssa Jenkins (St. John's, NL) led the charge in the third quarter, scoring a combined 13 points to cut Acadia's lead to just two points.

Less than 50 seconds into the final quarter, Jenkins drained a 3-point shot to give the Sea-Hawks their first lead since the mid-way point of the first quarter.

The teams then traded leads before Alana Short made good on a pair of free throws to put Memorial up 69-67 with 2:44 left. It was a lead they would never give back.

Acadia had one last shot with five seconds left and trailing 69-68. Off the inbounds play, they tried to find Elizabeth Iseyemi (Dartmouth, N.S.)  cutting to the basket, but she could not corral the high pass and the ball went out of bounds. On the ensuing play, Short was fouled to stop the clock and made the subsequent free throws to ice the victory.

Short paced the Sea-Hawks with 23 points and eight rebounds. Hannah Green (Flatrock, NL) added 20 points and seven rebounds, and was named the Player of the Game.

Iseyemi led the Axewomen with a game-high 28 points. Bianca Helmig (Speyer, Germany) added 12 of her own.

Recap by Atlantic University Sport