Huskies take down Sea-Hawks with convincing 82-59 Senior Night win

HALIFAX, N.S. - The Saint Mary's Huskies continued their strong play with a statement win on Senior Night, defeating the Memorial Sea-Hawks 82-59 at the Homburg Centre in Halifax.

The Huskies and Sea-Hawks came into Saturday night's game with matching 8-4 records, looking to move up the standings heading into the final weekend of the regular season.

Memorial scored the first points of the game on an Inis Salat-Margarit lay-up, but then the Huskies took over, going on a 17-0 run over the next four minutes, led by 10 points from Lucina Beaumont (Fredericton, NB). The Huskies athletic front court was turning defence into offence, blocking shots and playing passing lanes for steals and hurting the Sea-Hawks in transition to open up a 17-2 lead.

The Sea-Hawks were able to respond with an 8-7 run over the final five minutes of the quarter to cut the Huskies lead to 24-12 after 10 minutes.

The second quarter was more of the same, with the Huskies creating havoc in passing lanes and turning it into easy baskets on the other end. A three-pointer by reserve guard Sarah Forgie (New Westminster, BC) gave the Huskies their largest lead of the half, 43-19 with 2:58 to play. The Sea-Hawks were once again able to end the quarter on a decent run, outscoring the Huskies 8-2 over the last two minutes to cut the lead to 45-27 at the half. 

Beaumont led all scorers with 13 first half points including a trio of triples, while Marlo Steenbakkers (Ottawa, ON) and Clara Gascoigne (Dartmouth, NS) added nine each. Sea-Hawks leading scorer Alana Short had a team-high seven points in the first half.

In the third quarter, it was the Huskies veteran backcourt of Alaina McMillan (Brantford, ON) and Arianna Macias (Manta, Ecuador), the latter celebrating her Senior Night, who stepped up, each hitting a pair of deep three-pointers to continue to extend the lead. Short continued to pace Memorial with eight third quarter points, but the Huskies continued their dominant play and took a 68-40 lead into the final quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Short continued to score frequently, dropping 11 of her game high 26 points. But Huskies forward Marlo Steenbakkers had the answer, knocking down a pair of threes that got the Homburg Centre crowd on their feet. The Sea-Hawks outscored the Huskies 19-14 in the final quarter, but Saint Mary's never trailed again after going down 2-0, and held on for the commanding 82-59 lead.

Steenbakkers was named Subway Player of the Game with a career high 17 points and five blocks. A balanced night saw nine different Huskies hit the score sheet, including another strong game for Clara Gascoigne, who stuffed the stat sheet with 14 points, eight rebounds, five assists, two steals and one block.

The Huskies win improved their record to 9-4 on the season, and moved them into a tie for second place in the AUS standings. The Sea-Hawks loss dropped them to 8-5.

The two teams will meet again on Sunday, with tip-off scheduled for 12 p.m. at the Homburg Centre. 

Recap by Allan April / SMU Huskies Athletics

Photos by Nick Pearce / SMU Huskies Athletics