WOLFVILLE, N.S. - The Axewomen basketball team picked up four points in the AUS standings with a convincing 77-61 win over the visiting Memorial Sea-Hawks.
Improving to 10-9, after 2-5 start before the Christmas Holidays, the Axewomen held onto a lead for the entire duration of tonight's game.
Up 12-3 in the opening minutes of the first quarter, the Axewomen allowed the Sea-Hawks to come as close as 23-21 at the 6:50 mark of the second frame.
Ending the first half with a 44-28 deficit, Memorial worked it's way back to within seven points with 3:46 remaining in the third quarter. Trailing the Axewomen by 60-48 after three quarters of play, the Sea-Hawks were unable to gain ground as Acadia pushed towards their largest lead of the game of 18 at 3:30 in the final frame.
AUS leading scorer Paloma Anderson (Phoenix, Arizona) netted 26 points in the win and added four steals and three assists to be named the Subway Player of the Game.
"Every game is important to us whether we win or lose. There's always opportunity to learn and work on things to make our team and ourselves better. We approach every game one possession at a time along with one game at a time", noted Anderson when asked about the importance of the weekend's 4-point games against Memorial.
"Memorial has impact players on their team and our approach has been to do our best to guard those players according to our scouting report. I think our team did a good job doing that tonight", added Anderson.
Up by 14 points at the half, Anderson was asked what Coach Len Harvey had to say at the half. "Coach said it was a new half and let's go out and win each of the two quarters, not only in the point spread but defensively as well".
Ending the first half ahead of Memorial by 16, the final result was a 77-61 – 16-point win with the Sea-Hawks tying Acadia in the second half of play.
Sydney Stewart (Sarnia, Ont.) recorded a team high 18 points, while teammate Graciela Diaz-Brito (Santa Cruz, Spain) added 17. Diaz-Brito also posted a game high 11 rebounds.
On the winning side, Kelsey Rice added 11 points and 11 rebounds off the bench for the Axewomen. Chanel Smith recorded another strong game with 15 points and Katie Ross added 10 points for the win.
The Axewomen remain in sixth place in the AUS standings with 28 points, trailing UPEI and Memorial who both have 30 points. The Axewomen can slide into fourth place with a win tomorrow in a rematch against the Sea-Hawks. A Memorial win will solidify their spot in fourth place overall. Tomorrow's last game of the regular season between the Sea-Hawks and Acadia is scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. start.