Antigonish, NS – The X-Women basketball team dropped a 60-53 decision to the Nipissing Lakers Tuesday evening in CIS exhibition play at the Oland Centre.
The home team got out to a 14-12 advantage after the first quarter and increased their lead to 26-19 at halftime as the Lakers struggled to make their baskets in the opening half.
The Lakers re-grouped for the second half and outscored the X-Women 20-10 in the third quarter, taking the lead at 31-30 with four and a half minutes left the play. The teams exchanged leads for the remainder of the quarter, closing out with the Lakers up 39-36.
Forward Mackenzie Bahm (Kinburn, ON) played strong down the stretch for the Lakers, hitting a pair of three-pointers for critical points in the fourth quarter to allow the Lakers to hold onto their lead. She had a key steal off an in-bound pass with a minute and a half left in the game which she deposited for a lay-up and a six-point advantage at 58-53.
The game closed out 60-53 in favor of the Lakers who shot 42.6% from field goal range. The X-Women closed out the game at 34.7%.
Fifth year guard Claire Abbott (Whitehorse, YK) led the Lakers in scoring with 22 points while Bahm put up 21. Jamie Soffer (Kanata, ON) added eight for the Lakers and had six rebounds.
Second year X-Women guard Chelsea Provo (East Preston, NS) scored 13 points and had six rebounds while Jamie McCarron (New Glasgow, NS) netted nine. Jessica Miller (Mount Denson, NS) scored seven points for X and Holly Scott (Antigonish, NS) had six points and six rebounds.
With the win the Lakers improve to 3-3 in pre-season exhibition play. They now head to Sydney, NS where they will tip-off against the Cape Breton Capers Wednesday night at 7:00 pm. They wrap up their Eastern road trip this weekend at the Memorial University Invitational in St. John's, Nfld.
The X-Women drop to 0-4 in pre-season competition. They will next hit the court when AUS regular season action opens on Friday, November 4th, travelling to Charlottetown to play the UPEI Panthers. Tip-off is 6:00 pm.