Antigonish, NS - The visiting Saint Mary's Huskies picked up an 85-77 win over the StFX X-Women on Saturday evening. The Huskies led by a wide margin for most of the game, but X showed great determination to reduce the lead to four points in the game's final minute.
The Huskies were led by Alaina McMilan (Brantford, ON) and Kendra MacKinnon (Pictou, NS), who looked right at home on Coach K Court.
The first quarter was a tight affair with both teams not looking comfortable with the ball in hand. The first player to impose herself on the game was the fluid Arianna Macias (Tampa, FL) who helped the Huskies build a slender 16-13 first quarter lead. Kimberly Kingsbury (Nepean, ON) collected seven points for the home side in the opening quarter.
The second quarter saw MacKinnon hit two three-pointers and go four-of-four from the stripe as the Huskies poured in 23 points; however, the catalyst for the excellent offensive performance was McMilan, who marshalled her troops with great precision. With great ball movement, Saint Mary's built up a 39-22 half-time lead.
The third quarter was a much more even affair. The X-Women exploded for 30 points with Brianna Gottschall (Antigonish, NS) scoring nine and Kingsbury collecting eight. The
Huskies scored an impressive 25 points as McMilan and Macias each hit a pair of threes to help keep an eight-point lead going into the fourth quarter, 64-52.
StFX showed great character and skill in their effort to reduce and overcome SMU's lead. Leah Fahey (Barrie, ON) came off the bench to score an important six points. Gottschall remained locked in and scored a timely 13 points. The lead was reduced to six on numerous occasions, but McMilan and Macias kept the visitors on top. With 18 seconds remaining, Gottschall hit a three to make the score 81-77, but perfect free-throw shooting on the part of the Huskies meant X would find no way back as time ran out.
Arianna Macias was the leading scorer for the Huskies with 22 points on the night. Subway Player of the Game Alaina McMilan scored 18 and had six rebounds, while MacKinnon also contributed six rebounds and netted 15 points.
X-Women player of the game Kimberly Kingsbury finished with 21 points while Gottschall scored 22 and lead the team with nine rebounds.
The X-Women will be back in action Wednesday evening, February 13th when they travel to Sydney to take on the Cape Breton Capers. The Huskies will host Memorial Saturday evening, February 16th.
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Courtesy Bart Sears, StFX Sports Information