UNB's Colborne show back in town tonight

AUS basketball | V-Reds hoop squads host Dal and Acadia this weekend

No, the 18-year old Calgarian confesses, she didn't expect to be leading the country in scoring, "yet."

But, rookie or not, there she is, right at the top of the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Women's Basketball Conference scoring list...er, well, wait a minute. She's not there. CIS stats list Justine Colley of Saint Mary's, averaging 22.8 points per game, and Grace Fishbien of Memorial Sea-Hawks, at 21.0 points per game, as 1-2 in the nation. But Colborne's 24.3 points per game average is better than both.

"We've been addressing that this week," said UNB coach Jeff Speedy. "None of our players are on there for anything."

Perhaps the CIS statistical filberts don't believe it either.

Certainly, the six-foot wing has been, if not a revelation as a rookie with the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds women's basketball squad, certainly a pleasant surprise for the 3-1 V-Reds, who engage the Dalhousie Tigers of Halifax tonight and the Acadia Axewomen of Wolfville tomorrow, a pair of 6 p.m. starts at the UNB Main Gym.

The V-Reds men hook up with the Tigers and the Axemen in the back half of the hoop doubleheaders. Game time in each instance is 8 p.m.

Speedy hoped the new kid would have a profound impact on his program certainly. She was recruited as a scorer and has certainly done that, collecting 25, 29, 21 and 22 points to lead the squad in scoring in each of her first four regular season games.

"She's an above average scorer, above average passer, above average with her vision," said Speedy, warming up to one of his favourite subjects. "I think sometimes she tries to do too much. And like every single player I've ever coached, I would like her to be a better defender. But she's flat out scoring and, along with a couple of others, making it hard to stop us from scoring 70 or 80 points a night. She's in the mix, along with Amanda (Sharpe) and Leah (Corby) that are going to be among the top 10 or 12 in the Conference in scoring. That's pretty sweet for us."

Sharpe is seventh, with 14.3 points per game; Corby 13th with 12.0 points per game. Sweet indeed.

But Speedy believes she can be even better.

"She's putting the ball in the basket, and I think if you asked her, she feels she can do better in that department," said Speedy. "I think she feels she could make better decisions and make a few more shots. But that's music to my ears. If it's only going to get better, it's pretty good now."

Defending and decisions are things Speedy and the coaching staff are prepared to work on with the hoop prodigy, who led Alberta to gold at the Canada Games last summer in Charlottetown. Shooting too.

That was one of the promises Speedy and his staff made to her father Paul and mom Janice, when the whole recruiting process was at its peak.

Her dad, a former elite athlete in his own right -- he was a quarterback with the Calgary Dinos football team and played basketball there too -- coached his daughter throughout her minor basketball career.

"My dad coached me since I was young," she said. "He's always played a huge role in helping me be a basketball player. I look to him a lot. Without them, I probably wouldn't be here."

Their Calgary property has a "barn-type shed-gym," as Claire describes it, where she shot hoops every day. Her dad was her rebounder.

"He was very involved, and I think he did a good job," said Speedy. "He knows his basketball. He's had two other children go through the whole recruiting process. He's learned from that, and he was very direct about some of the things he wanted for her. There wasn't anything he wanted for her here that I wasn't able to say 'Yeah, we can do that. That's what we do.' He didn't have a long list of requests, but he wanted a commitment that me and the other coaches would shoot with her every day. And I said 'Yeah, we can do that.'

Colborne, whose sister Melissa became the first Canadian to play for the Ivy League Yale Bulldogs -- she graduated last year and now plays professionally in Germany -- and brother Joe plays for the American Hockey League's Providence Bruins after being drafted out of the University of Denver by the NHL's Boston Bruins, was courted by schools all over Canada and "quite a few schools in the States as well," she said, before casting her lot with Speedy and the V-Reds.

"Speedy was one of the main reasons I came here," she said. "He showed a lot of interest in me. He made quite a few trips out to Calgary to meet with me, to watch me. I really liked his coaching style. I thought the way he coached and the team he coached, we had potential to win the national championship one day."

"It was the first kind of blue-chip recruit I've got since I've been here," said Speedy. "We've got some kids I really like, but she was the first quote, unquote "blue-chipper." Both were glad it was over early. Colborne called him in Cape Breton in early January and salvaged a forgettable Friday by confirming she was coming east.

"I wanted to get it over with before Christmas, but I thought about it over the Christmas break," she said. "I was really happy with what I chose

Her mom and dad come east quite a bit too: both were on hand for the season opening games in the Pit against Memorial. Her mom was due to arrive yesterday.

"He hasn't missed too many," said Speedy. "They're great. They know their basketball. I think he wants us to win the national championship this year."

His daughter has the same ambition.

"I'd like to win this year," she said. "I hope it works out. If not, I think we have a good chance next year as well."

Colborne is a long way from home, but enjoying the Maritimes so far.

"I would say I love it," she said. "I'm making a lot of good friends. People here are so nice compared to everyone out west...they're just friendlier. The basketball part is what I expected. I would say it's gone a little easier than I expected. I got a chance to play on a club team this summer with a couple of the girls and that really helped. I love the girls on our team. They're awesome."

She emphasizes the role of her teammates in helping her get to the top of the scoring list.

"My teammates have given me the opportunity to be one of the best so far," she said. "I couldn't do it without them."

There are things Colborne and company want to do better this weekend. Frittering away leads -- they did it against Memorial a couple of weeks ago in their lone loss, and a 25-point lead over UPEI melted to eight by the time it was all over last Saturday -- is a situation that "needs to be addressed," said Speedy.

"That's why they give you 20 games, to figure things out," he said. "I don't think it's a short term solution. Maybe the best analogy I can give you is 'when we get punched in the mouth, we sort of stagger backwards before punching back.' We need to talk about it, we need to emphasize it."

"I guess we have to adapt to how the other team is playing and even how the refs are officiating the game," said Colborne.