Huskies Down VReds

(FREDERICTON, NB) The Saint Mary's Huskies used an 11-4 run in the fourth quarter to pull away from the UNB Varsity Reds in a 59-52 win on Friday.

Kennisha-Shanice Luberisse(Montreal, QC) scored a game-high 15 points to lead the Huskies, while Shanieka Wood(Ajax, ON) pulled down 14 rebounds.

Hannah Currie(Collingwood, ON) scored 13 points for UNB and Grace Wade(Moncton, NB) added 12. Mikeala Dodig(Bolton, ON) had 11 points for the Varsity Reds.

UNB led 13-10 after the first quarter and 26-22 at the half.

The Huskies outscored the home team 18-11 in the third quarter, turning a four-point deficit into a three-point lead.

SMU carried that momentum through the fourth quarter, on route to their victory.

"We're fighting for the bye. It was a four-point game, it's a lot of points, so I'm glad we won this game," said Luberisse.

The third-year guard was named Subway Player of the Game.

Luberisse says shots weren't falling for the Huskies early, and that was the focus of their talk at the half.

"We told ourselves if we're not going to make the baskets, at least we've got to play defence," she said. "We tried to make stops and things started going in the basket."

Varsity Reds head coach Jeff Speedy wasn't happy, admitting he made a few coaching mistakes in the loss.

"At the end of the day, they only scored in the 50s, so as many mistakes as we made defensively, the biggest problem for us was on the offense tonight."

Currie, Wade and Dodig accounted for all but 16 of the Varsity Reds' points.

"Pretty much everyone through the whole line-up struggled with the ball in their hands," said Speedy. "One of the players said it looked like nobody wanted to shoot, nobody wanted to dribble, nobody wanted to pass."

"We're pretty disappointed with that loss," said Dodig. "We didn't come out and play our best game and they played well. We needed to step it up a notch, this was a big game, four points that we needed to get and it sucks not getting it."

With the win, the Huskies improve to 11-3 and clinch an Atlantic University Sport playoff berth.

The Varsity Reds fall to 9-4, good for third place in the AUS standings.

"It's rare that you can play a sub-par game and beat a team like that," said Speedy. "It wouldn't have taken our best game tonight, it would've taken a pretty good game tonight."

The Huskies travel to Charlottetown to face UPEI on Saturday.

The Varsity Reds play host to Acadia.

Both games are scheduled to tip-off at 6:00pm.