FREDERICTON, NB – The UNB Varsity Reds defeated the StFX X-Women 63-56 in their final game of the Accreon Helen Campbell Tournament to come away with their third win of the weekend.
Both teams entered the match-up with a 2-0 record each having defeated Lethbridge and Toronto in their earlier games.
The first quarter saw a lot of deflections and a very active defense and both teams trading point for point. Score at the end of the quarter 15-13.
The first half continued with both teams getting lots of offensive rebounds and at one point it seemed the score was frozen for more than two minutes as neither team could find the net.
Kimberly Taylor for the X-Women and Nicole LaFleur for the V-Reds each had 10 points at the half while StFX posted 15 points for the quarter and UNB 10.
The third quarter saw X begin with five straight points to increase their lead 33-28.
The intensity of the game cranked up and both teams were scoring end to end and a number of lead changes to finally bring the score to 46-45 in favor of UNB at the end of the third.
UNB's LaFleur had left the floor with a sprained ankle in the quarter while minutes later X-Woman Annika McConachie took a hard fall but managed to return to play.
It was Kay who drained a big three leading UNB to a seven point charge in the fourth and put the V-Reds on top 59:43 with just over two minutes to go. UNB continued to drive to the net and stayed tight defensively to get their third win of the weekend 63-56.
UNB's Grace Wade had 10 points to bring her total of the weekend to 44 and earning the Accreon Helen Campbell Tournament MVP Award for her efforts.
Player of the Game awards went to Laura Kay for UNB with 17 points and X-Women Marcy Robinson with 8 – they each had 5 rebounds.
UNB Coach Jeff Speedy was very pleased with his team having come from behind in two out of the three games.
"You want to find out things about your team to work on at this time of year and you also want to see what they're made of. We're losing the fourth quarter, we have players down with injuries, and we're tired with three games in three days - I just thought the adversity that the girls showed was pretty special."
Speedy was happy with how the tournament went for the V-Reds and continued saying. "Our team we got to play three home games early in the season we don't play now for two weeks so we get a chance to really work on things - it's been exactly what we wanted."
Tournament All Star Team:
Rashida Atkinson – UofT
Mariah Miller – Lethbridge
Marcy Robinson – St.FX
Lindsay Lessard – St.FX
Rachel Cleary – UNB
Tournament MVP – Grace Wade, UNB