V-Reds Fall Short At SMU

(HALIFAX, NS) The UNB Varsity Reds couldn't pull off the weekend sweep, falling 61-56 to the Saint Mary's Huskies on Saturday afternoon.

The V-Reds led 22-19 after the first quarter, but couldn't hold on.

Laura Kaye(Fredericton, NB) led UNB with 21 points. Mikaela Dodig(Bolton, ON) added 14.

Jasmine Cain(Halifax, NS), Kennisha-Shanice Luberisse(Montreal, QC), and Shanieka Wood(Ajax, ON) all had 11 points for the Huskies. Luberisse played all but one minute of the game.

"They forced us into some really bad turnovers that led to fast break opportunities for them," said Varsity Reds head coach Jeff Speedy. "I think we counted four uncontested lay-ups, in transition, for them in the first half."

"I just think a lot of the decisions, with the ball in our hands today… we're not stupid, so we must've been fatigued and not doing or making the reads we should've made," said Speedy.

The Varsity Reds shot just over 37% from the field, but collected only five offensive rebounds.

Not good enough, according to fifth year forward Hannah Currie(Collingwood, ON).

"We struggled with our offence a little bit tonight, just getting some good reads and attacking off the ball screens," she said. "They did a little better at defensively executing our plays tonight, and we just struggled reading what we needed to read in order to get an easy score."

SMU held UNB to just six points in the third quarter.

"We had some girls yesterday(Friday) that won here for the first time, so that means there's no one that's ever swept here," said Speedy. "I did a while ago, but it's been a while, so we had a chance, even the way we were playing, to still pull out a win and we didn't."

UNB is now 4-2, and second in the Atlantic University Sport standings.

The Varsity Reds return home to host Memorial in a weekend series, Saturday and Sunday at the Richard J. Currie Center.

"We have to go hard in practice and figure out the way to win," said Currie. "Good teams aren't going to let us walk over them and get two easy wins. We need to focus and play hard in practice and learn how to win."

Fifth year senior Grace Wade(Moncton, NB) watched Saturday's game from the bench.

She suffered a significant knee injury early in Friday's game.

"Grace has, in all likelihood, a torn ACL(anterior cruciate ligament) and her career is over," said an emotional Speedy. "I'm devastated, and she's still crying. She wants to be out there. I wasn't going to be ready to stop coaching her in March, I wanted to coach her forever, so neither one of us is ready for her to be done in November, for sure."

RECAP AND PHOTOS BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics