FREDERICTON (CIS) – The Saint Mary's Huskies clawed their way back from an 11-point halftime deficit to defeat a tenacious University of Alberta Pandas by a single point in the second game of the 2016 ArcelorMittal Dofasco CIS women's basketball championship Thursday afternoon.
The 53-52 final score included a valiant attempt by the Pandas in the fourth, and a buzzer beater by Maddie Rogers to bring the score within one point.
The third ranked Huskies were led by Rachelle Coward, who scored 21 points, including 9 in the fourth quarter. Coward said the Huskies talked at half time and had to dig deep.
"We knew we were down by 11 at the half, and we knew we could bring it on in the second half. The turning point for us came in the third quarter, when we sped up our pace, and then eventually took the lead," she said. "When we did get that lead, we knew we could pull it off."
Huskies coach Scott Munro had a reason for the team's sluggish start. "We were on our heels a bit at the start. Alberta was fresher, they had just come of their western finals so were ready to go. And when we had a couple more go in the net in the third, we started to feel a lot more confident. We went with only 6 kids in the second half, and they got the job done."
The sixth ranked Alberta Pandas led 15 to 12 at the end of the first quarter, and by 27 to 16 at half time. In the third quarter, Saint Mary's scored 21 points to narrow the lead to 42 to 37. The Huskies scored 16 more in the fourth quarter, nine from Coward to win the game.
Alberta Pandas coach Scott Edwards was disappointed with the loss. "We came here to win this game," he said. "We'll deal with the loss now, and discuss the consolation later with the team. We are the youngest team in the tournament, so we expected to be in tough, and for the most part, we took the game to the Huskies. But when St. Mary's came out strong in the third quarter, we didn't handle their change of tactics well. We didn't adjust to the post up by their guards and that got us rattled."
The Saint Mary's Huskies will advance to the semifinals on Saturday where they will face the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. Alberta will play tomorrow in the consolation round of the national university women's basketball finals.
This weekend's champions will be awarded the Bronze Baby trophy. Last year's championship was hosted by Université Laval and won by the University of Windsor Lancers.
For more information on the 2016 CIS championship, please click here.
Source: Mike Grange for CIS Communications