Posted: Nov 27, 2015
(FREDERICTON, NB) The Saint Mary's Huskies women's basketball team topped the UNB Varsity Reds 61-50 to remain undefeated and tied atop the Atlantic University Sport standings..
Coming off two wins, last weekend, in Newfoundland, the Varsity Reds were looking to better their record against the undefeated Huskies at the Richard J. Currie Center.
Off the bench, Hannah Currie scored 12 points and collected 9 rebounds for UNB. Kennisha-Shanice Luberisse lead her Huskies with 15 points.
UNB struggled early on, falling behind the visiting Huskies. They turned the ball over seven times in the first quarter, giving SMU the edge on the scoreboard out of the gate.
While both teams shot under 30-percent in the first half, the Huskies lead by as much as eight and finished the half leading by seven.
"It's our Achilles heel, it has been for years... credit to their defense, I don't know if there is anyone in our league who plays as well as them," said head coach Jeff Speedy, about the early turnovers.
UNB opened the scoring in the second half, but the Huskies then went on a run. SMU opened a 12 point gap and held a 10 point lead heading into the final quarter.
UNB struggled once again, racking up five more turnovers in the third.
In the fourth quarter, UNB was able to close to within nine points, but quickly let the Huskies build their lead back up to 11… a lead they'd maintain to the final buzzer, taking the game 61-50.
"We just played the number two team in the country and held them to 61 points, so I'm not worried about bouncing back. We can play better, but we'll take the positives from today," said Speedy.
"I thought we battled hard defensively today. I think we could have boxed out a little better, kept the ball in front of us a little bit better. I think we would have got even more stops," he said. "Some of our kids off the bench did some good things for us today, especially Hannah Currie, so it's things like that we'll look at and be happy with."
The Varsity Reds and Huskies play the second of their two weekend games on Saturday evening, at the Currie Center. Tip-off is at 6:00PM.
BY – MICHAEL BOURGEOIS, FOR UNB ATHLETICS
PHOTO CREDIT – MICHAEL BOURGEOIS