Written by Joe Thomson

The Saint Mary's women's basketball team beat Dalhousie 86-61 on February 8.

Saint Mary's used their aggressive defence to come out of the gate strong. They managed to force the Tigers into turning the ball over a handful of times in the first quarter and quickly turned their turnovers into points on the other end. Dalhousie's shooters kept the game close, as Lindsay Black (Moncton, NB) and Emma Ward (Moncton, NB) drained a couple of threes to make the score 22-18 at the end of the first.

Dalhousie made a run at the start of the second quarter to tie the game up, but Huskies guard Alaina MacMillan (Brantford, ON) responded by picking up the slack on offence for Saint Mary's. With MacMillan's help, the Huskies extended their lead to eight by halftime as they led 43-35.

Saint Mary's added to their lead in the third as MacMillan and Clara Gascoigne (Dartmouth, NS) forced their way to the free throw over and over again. The Tigers got some help from Andrea Hebert (St. Catharines, ON), who managed to knock down her own fair share of freebies and crashed the boards hard to give Dalhousie some extra possessions. The Tigers would still need more, as Saint Mary's led 62-42 at the end of the third quarter.

Despite their best efforts, the Tigers could not close the gap as Saint Mary's grew their lead further in the fourth quarter.  The Huskies kept getting to the line and forced Dalhousie into 30 turnovers on their way to a 86-61 win.

Courtney Donaldson (Kelowna, BC) was named Subway player of the game for Saint Mary's after posting 19 points, six rebounds, and four assists in the victory.

The win moves Saint Mary's to 12-5 on the season and ties them for second place in the AUS with UPEI. Dalhousie drops to 1-17 with the loss.

The Tigers and Huskies will look to take the lessons from tonight's matchup into their next game when they face each other again this Saturday at Saint Mary's.