Antigonish, NS – The Acadia Axewomen extended their win streak to four games with a 68-52 victory over the STFX X-Women Wednesday night on Coach K Court at the STFX Saputo Centre. The win also avenged an earlier 76-65 loss to the same X squad in Wolfville earlier this month.
The Axewomen opened up with a five point lead after the first quarter of play, 15-10. Veteran Axewomen wing Elizabeth-Ann Iseyemi (Dartmouth, NS) netted eight points in the opening quarter for the visitors.
Acadia then went on a 17-0 run to open up the second quarter, holding the X-Women scoreless through four minutes. Lisa Bolander (Uppsala, SWE) provided a spark with eight points, including a pair from three-point range.
The X-Women tried to claw their way back into the game but the Axewomen were strong on both sides of he ball. They outscored the blue and white 30-15 in the seconds quarter to take a 45-25 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Iseyemi and Bolander scored 12 and 10 points respectively for Acadia in the first half who shot 48.4% from field goal range. Avery Walker (Ottawa, ON) had seven opening half points for the X-Women.
The third quarter was closer in scoring with the Axewomen having a 14-13 edge but they still held onto their 20 point advantage and closed out 30 minutes with a 59-38 lead.
The X-Women continued their stronger second half play as they outpaced the Axewomen 14-9 in the final quarter but the visitors had built up a large enough lead to close out the 68-52 victory.
Iseyemi was the player of the game, finishing with a game-high 21 points while hauling in 13 rebounds for a double-double night. Bolander scored 12 with Biana Helmig (Speyer, GER) and Taya Dixon (Halifax, NS) each contributing nine points apiece.
Samantha Russell (Dartmouth, NS) had a game-high 19 rebounds, including 17 on defense for the Axewomen, while adding seven points.
The X-Women scoring was spread out with contributions off the bench from Walker and Laia Torrent (Cornella de Llobregat, Spain) with nine each and Elizabeth Kennedy (Richmond, BC) with seven. Shannon Neita (Toronto, ON) was the top X rebounder with 10.
STFX was without the services of their top scorer Ekaterina Karchevskaya (Mogilev, Belarus) for most of the second half due to an injury sustained in the game.
With the win the Axewomen improve to 12-4 on the season and move into a tie for second place in the AUS standings with Saint Mary's (12-3). The X-Women drop to 6-10 and remain in sixth place, battling for the final playoff berth.
STFX will next see action on Saturday night when they host the Cape Breton Capers (5-11) on Coach K Court at 6:00 pm. The Axewomen have the weekend off and will travel to Halifax next Thursday to take on Saint Mary's.
-30-
Recap courtesy Krista McKenna, STFX Athletics