Antigonish, NS - Led by 14 points from freshman forward Shanieka Wood (Ajax, ON), including the final eight of the game, the Saint Mary's Huskies defeated the StFX X-Women 57-46 in AUS basketball action Wednesday night as the X-Women continue to struggle to find a win.
More than 200 fans turned out for the Shoot the Cure fundraiser at Oland Centre, with proceeds benefitting the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
Deadlocked at 42-42 with just more than three minutes remaining in regulation, the AUS first-place and CIS No. 10 ranked Huskies outscored the X-Women 15-4 in the home stretch to secure the victory.
Before Wood's late-game heroics, her team-mate Laura Langille (Bedford, NS) broke the tie, making it 47-42 with a pair of free throws and a three-point jumper from the corner.
Along with her team-high point total, Wood chipped in six rebounds, four blocked shots and one assist as part of a Subway player of the game effort, while Langille finished with nine points, three rebounds, three assists, two steals and one blocked shot.
Off the bench, Carlie Nugent (Richmond Hill, ON) also hit double digits with 11, while freshman Kennisha-Shanice Luberisse (Montreal, QC) contributed six points, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals.
X-Women player of the game Lindsay Lessard (Waterloo, ON) and Kolbi Roper (North Vancouver, BC) led the X-Women with 20 and 15 points, respectively.
Roper scored 11 points in her team's second half rally from an eight-point deficit. She added seven rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Lessard also corralled seven rebounds.
"We played good defense. We know we can beat them but we came up short in the fourth quarter. We didn't get the job done," Roper said after the game.
The X-Women jumped to an 8-2 lead in the first quarter on the strength of six points from Lessard, who scored 12 in the first half.
"We are doing the little things, like making the extra pass," Lessard said at halftime, noting the X-Women's 'defensive intensity' after 20 minutes.
The Huskies outscored the X-Women 11-8 in the second quarter en route to a 22-20 halftime advantage.
As part of a balanced attack for Saint Mary's, Wood and Nugent notched six points apiece in the first half.
The X-Women out-rebounded the Huskies 36 to 34, while StFX had 21 turnovers compared to 14 for Saint Mary's.
With the win, the Huskies improve to 12-2, while the X-Women fall to 4-12, their last win dating back to January 10th.
The Huskies return to action this weekend when they host the Memorial Sea-Hawks twice in Halifax.
The X-Women will be back on the court Tuesday, Feb. 10, when they host the Dalhousie Tigers at Oland Centre. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.
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