Varsity Reds take both games over X-Women on home court

The UNB Varsity Reds women's basketball team swept both games against St. FX this weekend, winning again tonight 70-58. The Varsity Reds, who defeated the X-Women last night 82-61, improve their record to 4-2 this season.

It was a close game in the first quarter, with St.FX taking the lead offensively and largely dictating play. Towards the end of the first half, the V-Reds managed to pick up the pace and counter the X-Women's physical defence with some solid speed on the court. UNB would go into half-time up 21-10.

The Varsity Reds managed to keep up that speed, and their lead over the X-Women, til the final buzzer sounded. The X-Women drew close again in the fourth quarter, but before long UNB pulled away again – sustaining around a ten-point advantage throughout the majority of the second half. 

Leading scoring for UNB was Nicole LaFleur with 18 points. Katelyn Mangold and Kiley DeLong also put up strong performances, with ten points and seven rebounds for Mangold and 12 points and an impressive eleven rebounds for DeLong. Forward Lindsay Lessard had 18 points to lead scoring for the X-Women. Jamelia Clark also made her presence felt on the court with six rebounds for  St.FX. 

UNB head coach Jeff Speedy says he's encouraged to see his team pick up two wins at home after dropping two games to SMU last weekend.

"One of the things you want to do is defend your home court and try to win at home," Speedy said. "If you're not a very good basketball team, it's hard to defend your home court. And I think we're starting to become a good basketball team, so it becomes a reasonable goal to try and win most if not all of our games at home."

Speedy says there's still a lot of room for improvement with the UNB squad – particularly when it comes to those pesky rebounds.

"When we out-rebound our opponent, we usually win. And that was one of our big Achilles' heels last weekend, is we got out-rebounded by Saint Mary's. I think we won the rebounding battle today, but they got too many offensive boards, and that's something we have to fix."

The Varsity Reds play next on Friday, November 28, when they travel to play Cape Breton at 6pm.

The X-Women host UPEI at the same time.