Varsity Reds fall to Tigers 68-56

The UNB Varsity Reds women's basketball team fought hard to get back into the game after a tough first quarter but were bested by the Dalhousie Tigers 68-56 in front of 433 spectators at the Richard J. CURRIE CENTER.

The V-Reds had a tough first ten minutes, where they saw an early lead turn into a serious of turnovers that left them down 22-8 at the end of the quarter.

From the point on, UNB was caught in a game of catch-up against a Dalhousie team that was making very few errors. The Varsity Reds chipped away at the lead for the next three quarters, including a very strong last ten minutes, but they couldn't catch the Tigers.

"We weren't focused in the first quarter," Varsity Reds forward Kiley DeLong said after the game. "They're the best team in the league and they have a lot of really good players. We came out scared."

"We've been in all our games before this one, so this one hurts. But we've gotta move on, and we have another eight-point weekend next weekend, so it's all about learning from it."

Leading the scoring for the Dalhousie Tigers were Courtney Thompson with 22 points and Tessa Stammberger with 20 points and seven rebounds. Leading scoring for the Varsity Reds was Nicole LaFleur with 11 points followed by DeLong with 10.

Looking forward to next weekend, DeLong says it's all about coming out strong.

"We gotta play with more confidence and not panic with the ball. When we got pressed we turned the ball over a lot and we just weren't focused at the beginning of the game and we can't come into any games unfocused."

But that doesn't mean the game was without positives.

"We kept fighting the whole way through and I think we were with them in the fourth quarter," DeLong said. "So we've got to learn from that and play like that the whole game."

The Varsity Reds play next on Friday, January 23, when they host Cape Breton at 6pm.

The Tigers play next on Saturday, January 24, when they host Memorial at the same time.