VReds Fall to 7th in CIS National WBB Rankings
The Bluenose Province is a nice place to visit. Unless you’re in the business of winning basketball games, which makes Nova Scotia an awfully tough place to play and come home with victories in your travel bag.
The University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds women’s basketball team found out the hard way just how tough it is to win games in Nova Scotia on the weekend, dropping a pair of games during a Saturday and Sunday road swing.
UNB fell 82-73 to the St. Mary’s University Huskies on Sunday, coming on the heels of a 91-73 setback to the host St. Francis Xavier University X-Women the night before.
“Every week you learn something about your team and every road game, you seem to find out more and more,” said UNB head coach Jeff Speedy. “We built ourselves some early holes in both games. When you’re trying to play catch up basketball on the road, you end up doing things to try and make up deficits in a hurry. That can come back and bite you and that’s what happened to us. Consider it a lesson learned and we simply need to learn from it and prepare for our next games.”
At least that comes quickly. UNB will return to the Lady Beaverbrook Gymnasium on Saturday and Sunday for a rare doubleheader against the same team. The spicy storyline of the twinbill, however, has St. FX in for both games including a 6 p.m. outing on Saturday and a 2 p.m. matinee Sunday.
“We can’t look at either of those games as payback because revenge is not a good motivator,” said Speedy. “It’s about getting better every week and doing the things we talked about after the weekend. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again … every game in the Atlantic conference is a battle. Not one team out there will give you an inch. You have to earn it and we need to get right back in there and earn where we believe we should be.”
Against the Huskies, the hosts exploded for 25 first quarter points and built an eventual 46-35 halftime lead en route to the victory. That loss bothered Speedy more than Saturday’s setback.
“The game against SMU was very disappointing because with a veteran team like we have, you expect them to come back and play with pride after being drilled the night before,” he said. “We definitely did not do that. But you know what? This is a great opportunity for us to learn and get better. We can fix what is wrong and assuming the players buy in, we will fix those things and be better for it.”
Justine Colley, kept relatively quiet in UNB’s win at home over SMU only a week ago, erupted for 33 points to lead all scorers. She made 11 field goals on 23 bids and also nailed a trio of three pointers. Amanda Sharpe had 18 to lead UNB and Emma Russell added a dozen. Megan Corby and Leah Corby both hit for nine and Claire Colborne scored seven.
St. FX also used a quick start and was up 50-33 at the break, outscoring the VReds 22-11 in a decisive second quarter.
Donisha Young’s 24 points sparked the X-Women. Colborne hit for 22, Sharpe added 19 and Megan Corby scored 11 for UNB. Laura Fowler struck for nine points. St. FX won the battle of the boards offensively, outpouncing UNB 24-9.
Speedy has left the weekend in the dust – or snow – and hopes his team has done the same. There’s games this weekend. That’s the focal point for his 8-3 and second place VReds.
“I’m excited for the upcoming weekend,” he said. “X has had our number for a couple of years and we have something to prove. Not so much to them but to ourselves. I expect a spirited week of practice and an exciting weekend at the Pit.”