Antigonish, NS – The Saint Mary's Huskies defeated the STFX X-Women 91-64 Saturday night at the STFX Saputo Centre in the final game of AUS regular season competition.
With the win the Huskies (15-5) clinch second place in the AUS standings and an important first round playoff bye at the upcoming AUS championship next weekend at the Halifax Scotiabank Centre. The Huskies have earned a berth directly into the AUS semi-final game on Saturday evening, February 25th.
The X-Women wrap up the season with a 3-17 record and out of playoff contention.
Saint Mary's got out to a 21-14 lead after the first quarter on Coach K Court. Guard Clara Gascoigne (Dartmouth, NS) scored eight points for the visitors in the opening frame.
The Huskies continued to roll in the second quarter and shut down the X offense, holding them to only two points in the opening four minutes of the second quarter. Courtney Donaldson (Kelowna, BC) was strong on the SMU defense and Alaina McMillan (Brantford, ON) had the hot shooting hands.
McMillan netted 14 points in the opening half for the Huskies, as did Gascoigne, as the visitors held a 55-29 lead at halftime over the X-Women.
Krissy Cooper (Hamilton, ON) scored six points for STFX in the first half.
Copper continued her strong play in the third quarter for the X-Women and they outpaced the Huskies 23-12. Aliyah Fraser (New Glasgow, NS) and Ekaterina Karchevskaya (Mogilev, BY) made key baskets for STFX.
Saint Mary's held onto a 15-point lead after 30 minutes, 67-52.
They built the lead back up to 20 points early in the fourth quarter and continued to pull away as the X-Women could not overcome the deficit, and the Huskies closed out the 91-64 win.
McMillan finished the game with 24 points and four rebounds and went 6-for-7 from three point range, earning Subway player of the game honours. Gascoigne scored 18 points for the Huskies and Sophia Widmeyer (Dartmouth, NS) added 14 and five rebounds.
Karchevskaya was the top scorer for the X-Women with 10 points and added six rebounds. Fraser contributed nine points and five rebounds and STFX player of the game Cooper had eight points and seven rebounds.
With Fraser's pair of three pointers in the game she set the STFX single season record for three-point field goals made with 41 on the year, breaking the previous record of 40 set in the 2008-09 season by Elyse Hnatiuk.
Tonight marked the final AUS regular season game for both teams. Following the game, X-Women head coach Matt Spencer honoured his graduating student-athletes, guard Aliyah Fraser and forward Courtney Taylor.
The Subway AUS women's basketball championship is being held February 24-26 at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax.
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Recap courtesy Krista McKenna, STFX Athletics
X-Women Basketball head coach with graduating senior X-Women athletes Courtney Taylor (left) and Aliyah Fraser (right).