Huskies top X-Women 80-65

(HALIFAX, N.S.)—The Saint Mary's Huskies picked up their first win of the season on Friday evening, earning an 80-65 victory over the visiting StFX X-Women in Atlantic University Sport women's basketball action from the Homburg Centre.

Kimberly Kingsbury (Nepean, ON) paced all scorers with 26 points in a losing effort for StFX. Kingsbury shot 11-21 from the floor and added eight rebounds for the X-Women.

SMU led 24-14 after the first quarter as Kingsbury had eight points and Arianna Macias (Tampa, Florida) had 11 of her team-high 20 points for the Huskies in the frame.

A 15-11 second quarter score saw the X-Women chip away at SMU's lead, trailing the Huskies by six at halftime, 35-29.

Josie Gascoigne (Dartmouth, NS) had nine of her 17 points in the third quarter, as her Huskies outscored StFX 19-9 and extended their lead to 54-38 after thirty minutes.

Both teams pushed the pace in the final quarter as StFX outscored SMU 27-26 in the fourth and Saint Mary's hung on to the 80-65 win.

SMU improves to 1-7 in AUS play while the X-Women are winless thru eight conference games.

Brianna Gottschall (Antigonish, NS) added 11 points for StFX while Samantha Minicucci (Mississauga, ON) had nine and Maggie Segeren (Komoka, ON) had eight off the bench.

Alaina McMillan (Brantford, ON) chipped in 16 points for SMU, dishing out seven assists and went 2 for 3 from beyond the three-point line.

Belinda Ndaye (Toronto, ON) finished with seven points while Jade Yeo (Cornwall, PE) had four for Saint Mary's and Kendra MacKinnon (Pictou, NS) finished with eight points off the bench in 14 minutes.

Both teams play next week with StFX in a home and home series with the 3-4 Dalhousie Tigers January 9 and 11 while SMU hosts 6-1 UPEI January 11-12.

Tip-off for all games is 6 p.m.

Dominic Nolasco

Photo Nick Pearce