(FREDERICTON, NB) The UNB REDS earned their first win of the 2022-2023 Atlantic University Sport season on Sunday, beating the Memorial Sea-Hawks 88-85.
Norm Burry (Grafton, NB) led the REDS with 25 points, while Malik Grant (Brampton, ON) scored 15, grabbed seven rebounds and three steals, and dished out six assists.
Grant was named Subway Player of the Game.
"It feels good," said Grant. "It's going to get the ball rolling for the games we've got coming up. It's going to give us some momentum."
The teams went toe-to-toe in the first quarter, scoring a combined 52 points.
UNB held a 29-23 edge after ten minutes.
The second quarter was just as exciting, with the Sea-Hawks outscoring the home team 26-20, pulling even, 49-49, at the half.
In the third quarter, the REDS began to flex their muscle, building a 12-point lead, 70-58 with about 2:30 to play, and leading 75-59 headed to the fourth.
In the final quarter, the REDS led by as many as 16, but the Sea-Hawks clawed their way back to within six, at 80-74, before the hosts regained control.
But that was only temporary.
Down 88-81 with under a minute to play, the Sea-Hawks scored the final four points of the game but missed what would've been a game-tying three-point shot at the buzzer.
"We played defence, that's all it was," said Grant. "It came down to getting stops, keeping guys out of the paint and just making them live or die with their three-pointer."
Marcus Barnes (Kitchener, ON) scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds for UNB.
Emanuel Ring (St. John's, NL) led Memorial, scoring 19 points and hauling in eight rebounds.
Flynn Boardman-Raffet (London, UK) scored 16, dished out nine assists, and grabbed eight rebounds.
"It's really hard to win two on the road," said Boardman-Raffet. "You can't get too high after a win or too low after a loss. It's hard to win two on the road, so that's the lesson for myself and some of the young guys on the team, you need to be good for 80 minutes on a weekend to get two wins."
With the win, the REDS are now 1-and-3.
"It feels good. It kind of feels like there's a monkey off your back," said REDS head coach Joe Salerno. "This group, this new, young group, needs to learn how to win and tonight was a small, difficult step towards that, but if feels good. I'm happy for them."
"We were more assertive, more aggressive defensively tonight," added Salerno. "I thought we made them a little more uncomfortable on the offensive end and we took much better care of the basketball."
Memorial is now 1-and-3 as well.
The REDS now go on the road, visiting Saint Mary's on Friday for a scheduled 8:00pm start.
Memorial returns home to host Dalhousie, on Saturday.
RECAP BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics
PHOTOS BY: James West/for UNB Athletics