UNB women on there bound against X
The University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds women's basketball team bounced back from a tough loss with a tough-as-nails win over the St. Francis Xavier X-Women yesterday at the UNB main gym.
After X outlasted the V-Reds 96-93 in double overtime Saturday night, the V-Reds won yesterday's rematch 69-55 before 600 fans.
By stopping their three-game losing skid, the Reds raise their Atlantic University Sport women's basketball conference record to 9-4 while the X-Women drop to 9-5.
Claire Colborne connected for 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds while Amanda Sharpe heated up to finish with 17 points and eight boards. Leah Corby helped out with 15 points and seven assists.
Ashley Stephen replied with 12 points and 13 boards for St. FX. Sheryl Chisholm and Kirsten Jones scored nine apiece while Fredericton sophomore Rebecca Sheehan came off the bench to add eight in the second half.
The V-Reds led 38-24 three minutes into the third quarter, but St. FX shaved the 14-point deficit to one, 49-48, 10 minutes later. The Reds didn't unravel, though. Corby and Colborne drained back-to-back three-pointers to hike the lead back up to seven, at 55-48, with 3:18 remaining.
"It was a great win," Colborne said. "We came out very strong and did what we had to do. We pushed the ball and played together as a team. After losing two straight to them (in seven days), we really wanted to beat them today. When they got close, we stayed composed."
Colborne, like every UNB player, had numerous on-court collisions.
"They're a really physical team," she said. "At the beginning, we weren't so physical but we picked it up. We need to be physical to beat them, for sure."
St. FX head coach Matt Skinn said the stats don't lie: X was a dreary 20-for-79 (25.3 per cent) from the field.
"You've got to give UNB credit for what they did on the floor today," Skinn said. "They played tough and physical and made it tough for us to get to the rim. Our offence struggled and that's because of what they did defensively."
"It's a cliché but it's a huge character win for us," UNB head coach Jeff Speedy said. "We had a very good week of practice, played a very good game last night but had nothing to show for it. Today, I thought we were the best team by far. Even though the game got close a couple times, I really felt we were in control the whole game."
Speedy was pleased to see his big three scorers combine for 53 of the team's 69 points, but also liked the industrious efforts of Emma Russell, Melissa Foster and Jordanne Holstein.
"Jordanne had five rebounds in just 12 minutes," he said. "We got huge contributions from those players in different areas."
In Saturday's thriller, the X-Women overcame a 39-29 halftime deficit. The teams were tied 73-73 at the end of regulation and 84-all after the first OT. Stephen was all over the stats sheet with 19 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and six steals. Chisholm and Donisha Young chipped in with 21 and 16 points, respectively.
Sharpe drove for 35 points and grabbed 10 boards for the V-Reds. Corby contributed 20 points and 10 assists. Colborne tossed in 19 points and Russell hauled down a dozen rebounds. UNB was 23-for-40 from the line while St. FX hit 24 of 29 free throws.