Antigonish, NS - The visiting Memorial Sea-Hawks won their second consecutive game in as many days over the StFX X-Women, playing to a 70-50 victory Sunday afternoon at StFX Oland Centre. With each game worth four points in the AUS standings, the Sea-Hawks picked up some key points.
Memorial took a 38-26 lead into the half on the strength of excellent play by Sydney Stewart (Sarnia, ON) who led all scorers with 11 points.
The aggressive Sea-Hawks caused the X-Women to commit a number of fouls early on. They made them pay from the foul line by going six for seven in the first quarter. StFX's Brianna Gottschall made the score look a bit more respectable when she hit a last second three-pointer to make the score 23-10 in favour of MUN at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter saw both teams find their range from beyond the arc with Jamie McCarron (New Glasgow, NS) nailing a trio of threes to keep the X-Women within touching distance. The StFX defence tightened up in the second quarter, but it was the suffocating defence of the Sea-Hawks, and Stewart in particular, that made it difficult for the X-Women to close the gap on the efficient Sea-Hawks outfit.
Memorial led 38-26 at the break.
The second half saw the Sea-Hawks continue their dominant play over the X-Women. The effort of Haille Nickerson (Grimbsy, ON) off the bench was impressive. The X-Women were only able to muster 12 points in the third quarter, with Samantha Minicucci (Mississauga, ON) collecting four points. The Sea-Hawks' defence kept StFX's leading scorer, Kimberly Kingsbury (Nepean, ON) scoreless in the quarter.
The fourth quarter also belonged to the Sea-Hawks. Forward Brooklyn Wright (Cambridge, ON) hit a nice three-pointer and continued to play well on both sides of the ball. Gottschall, playing with four fouls, managed five points in the frame as she led all X scorers with 15 points on the afternoon. The Sea-Hawks ran out the time, closing out the 70-50 victory.
Stewart was the Subway player of the game as she led all scorers with 20 points. Sydney Ezekiel (St. John's, NF) led all players with 11 rebounds and also scored 11 points for a double-double game. Nickerson added 10.
Gottschall led X-Women scorers with 15 points and had six rebounds. Kingsbury led X with eight rebounds. McCarron and StFX player of the game Maggie Segeren (Komoka, ON) each scored nine.
The X-Women will return to action on Wednesday evening when they host the Acadia Axewomen in a 6:00 pm tip-off on Coach K Court.
The Sea-Hawks will have next weekend off before they travel to Halifax to play the Huskies on February 16th.
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Courtesy Bart Sears, StFX Sports Information