(FREDERICTON, NB) "I think we were fortunate to win that game."
Jeff Speedy calls it like he sees it.
The head coach of the UNB Varsity Reds was happy to escape with a 61-55 win over the Memorial Sea-Hawks.
Speedy says the 1-and-12 Sea-Hawks challenged his team from start to finish.
"I accused our girls of being pylons on defence and I thought six, seven, eight of us were getting beat off the dribble and getting beat by cuts."
As quick to defend his team as chastise them, Speedy acknowledges they knew what they were up against. "I don't think we took them lightly."
Grace Wade led the UNB attack, scoring 13 points, while Katelyn Mangold came off the bench to score 8 and grab a game-high 9 rebounds.
"We were a little slow on the ball," said Mangold. "That was something we talked about at half-time."
Mangold, who missed the first half of the season recovering from a knee injury, was named UNB's Subway player of the game.
"I'm proud of our team for getting back out of it and pulling out the win"
Hannah Currie, Kiley DeLong and Rachel Cleary also scored 8.
With the win, the Varsity Reds improve to 8-and-5, good for fourth place in the AUS standings.
Sydney Stewart scored a game-high 15 for Memorial. Sydney Ezekiel added 11.
"I was really pleased with our effort," said Sea-Hawks coach Mark English. "Tonight we played defence for 40 minutes and we held a pretty good UNB team to 61."
English is hoping to see the same effort when the two teams meet again on Sunday. "Hopefully we can put a few more points on the board too."
The Varsity Reds and Sea-Hawks square off again, Sunday, at 11:00AM, at the Richard J. Currie Center.