Axewomen defeat Tigers 80-76

RECAP BY: Ethan Hunt

(Halifax, NS) - The Acadia Axewomen beat the Dalhousie Tigers 80-76 Saturday night at the Dalplex in Halifax, NS.

Kaitlyn Ferrier (Calgary, AB) scored 24 points in the loss and took home player of the game.

The teams missed on both their first possessions until Acadia's Bianca Helmig (Speye, Germany) drove into the lane and scooped in the first two points of the game.

The teams traded free throws, until after a Dalhousie miss, Elizabeth-Ann Iseyemi (Dartmouth, NS) outletted Samantha Russell (Dartmouth, NS) who went on a fast break where she put in the layup and the foul.

DAL recorded their first field goal of the game when Sydney Guker-Wickie (Kitchener, ON) caught the ball then immediately swished a three pointer.

After Simona Matic (Belgrade, Serbia) forced an offensive foul on Rio Yamazaki (Tokyo, Japan), Ferrier missed a three point shot, but Guker-Wickie skied for the rebound then went back up for two points.

When the first quarter buzzer rang Acadia had a small 15-13 lead.

The Tigers opened the quarter with Matic driving into the paint then passing out to Sarah Valley (Reginia, SK) who splashed a three.

Iseyemi calmed the storm with an early four points off of free throws and a layup and her Axewomen improved their lead to 23-20, but Valley answered back with another catch and shoot three.

With the teams even at 34, the Tigers had the ball with 12 seconds left in the quarter with a chance at the lead, but they missed the shot and Russell swished a shot from just past half court at the buzzer to go into halftime up 37-34.

Acadia opened the gate with two straight steals and resulted in a Lisa Bolander (Uppsala, Sweden) three pointer, and Iseyemi driving to the basket and getting a foul call.

Ferrier answered back by racing past her defender and scoring a tough layup over two Acadia defenders, she then followed that up with another two points.

The Axewomen then went on a 12-3 run with Iseyemi scoring seven of the 12 points including a layup make plus the foul.

Dalhousie clawed back into the game off of a Valley made three, followed up by Guker-Wickie banking in a layup to cut the lead to 55-48, but an and one layup by Bolander made the comeback harder.

Bolander added a three point make to the lead, but Guker-Wickie sank a contested three pointer at the buzzer to match it, and made the score 61-53 heading into the final quarter.

Two and one baskets by Anna Parsons (Calgary, AB) brought the lead down to one with six and a half minutes remaining.

With three minutes left and a tie game, Iseyemi sank a layup, and Bolander followed it up with a midrange to give Acadia a small 75-72 lead.

Guker-Wickie gave DAL a one point lead, but Iseyemi banked in a layup and added two free throws.

Bolander missed one of two free throws to give the Tigers life, but a missed layup ended the night with a 80-76 Acadia win.

Acadia will return to Wolfville to welcome the UPEI Panthers on Friday, and Dalhousie will face Memorial at home on the same day.

PHOTO BY: Nick Pearce