Acadia tops Saint Mary's 78-62 in women's basketball action

(HALIFAX, NS)—The USports No. 3 Acadia Axewomen defeated the host Saint Mary's Huskies 78-62 on Friday evening in Atlantic university sport women's basketball action from the Homburg Centre.

Acadia ended the first quarter up 21-13 and used a 21-19 second quarter score to take a 10-point lead at half-time, 42-32.

The Axewomen controlled the third quarter with a 17-12 score and led 59-44 after thirty minutes.

The final frame saw Acadia outscore SMU 19-18 in the quarter and the Axewomen took the victory 78-62.

Acadia improves to 15-1 after jumping up one spot in last week's USports Top 10.

Saint Mary's drops to 10-6 and both teams have secured playoff spots.

Horton HS alum Haley McDonald (Port Williams, NS) paced Acadia and all scorers with 18 points and added eight assists in the win while teammate and 5-1 guard Pamoela Anderson (Phoenix, Arizona) finished with 15 points and nine assists.

Halifax West alum Chanel Smith (Halifax, NS) added 14 points and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia native Alexandra Berry had 13 for the Axewomen.

Senior guard Katrina Murrell (Markham, Ont.) chipped in 13 points for Saint Mary's while teammate Kennisha-Shanice Luberisse (Montreal, QC) added 12 points and nine rebounds.

Also scoring for SMU were Jasmine Cain (Halifax, NS) and Shanieka Wood (Ajax, Ont.) with 11 points each while Courtney Cain-Nordin (Halifax, NS) added eight points off the Huskies bench.

Up next for both teams is the 10-6 Cape Breton University Capers.

CBU travels down to Wolfville Saturday February 10 for a 6 p.m. tip-off versus Acadia while SMU travels up to Sydney February 16-17 versus the Capers.

Dominic Nolasco

Photo Mona Ghiz