Veinot Leads REDS To Victory

(FREDERICTON, NB) The UNB REDS got 23 points from reigning Atlantic University Sport MVP Jayda Veinot in an 84-71 win over the STFX X-Women, in a four-point game, Sunday afternoon, at UNB's Richard J. Currie Center.

Veinot scored 17 points in the first half and added six more in the second. She was named Subway Player of the Game.

"We would've liked to have finished the game a bit cleaner. I think in the second half we got a bit complacent, but a win is a win," said Veinot. "They came out ready to fight, especially in that second half, so we're happy to get it done, however it gets done."

In the early going, Marley Curwin (Halifax, NS) had a hot hand, scoring five of UNB's first seven points.

With the hosts up by six and looking for more, Aliyah Fraser (New Glasgow, NS) hit a fade-away jumper to trim the REDS lead to 19-15.

A late technical foul, assessed to the X-Women bench, and a Kylee Speedy bucket gave UNB a 26-19 lead through one quarter.

In the second, Veinot made her mark, scoring off a steal and drawing the foul on the play. Her three-point play gave the REDS a 35-24 lead.

By the mid-way point of the quarter, UNB had built a 15-point lead, but a Melina Collins (Halifax, NS) triple trimmed the X deficit to a dozen, at 41-29.

At the half, the REDS led 50-32.

In the third quarter, the teams traded baskets through the first five minutes, with UNB maintaining its 18-point lead.

The REDS were up 67-47 after three quarters.

In the fourth, the X-Women began chipping away at the 20-point deficit, getting it to 14-points with 7:30 to play and pulled within 11 with under a minute to play, but the REDS hung on for the 84-71 victory, clinching an AUS playoff berth.

"No team just wants to make the playoffs, it's the first thing that has to happen, but there's a lot left to come in this season," said Veinot.

"We got outworked today," said Fraser. "We started play hard a little bit too late in the game and by that point we were already down by so much it was too hard and too late."

The loss, the fourth in a row for X, eliminates them from post-season contention.

"It's disappointing we won't be going to the playoffs in my final year, but we've learned so much this season and there's been so many lessons that wouldn't have happened in a different scenario," said Fraser.

With the win, the REDS snap a two-game losing streak and improve to 10-7. The X-Women are 3-14.

STFX now prepares to host the league-leading Acadia Axewomen, Friday, at 6:00pm.

The REDS will be in St. John's on Friday for the first of two weekend games against the Memorial Sea-Hawks. Game time is 5:30pm Atlantic.

RECAP BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics

PHOTOS BY: James West/for UNB Athletics