Huskies dominate in final to claim first AUS title in over 35 years

(FREDERICTON, N.B.) – The CIS No. 4-ranked Saint Mary's women's basketball team captured the program's first AUS banner since 1976-77 with a 90-57 win over the StFX X-Women at the 2013 Subway AUS women's basketball championship hosted by UNB.

The Huskies followed up an 18-2 regular season with a perfect 2-0 record this weekend and will now move on to the CIS championship hosted by Regina next weekend. It is also just the second ever Atlantic conference women's basketball title for the Huskies.

StFX jumped out to a 6-2 lead early but Saint Mary's weathered the storm and the score was tied at 19-19 after the first.  Lia St. Pierre and Vanessa Pickard both got into early in foul trouble, picking up two fouls a piece in the first quarter. The Huskies seemed frustrated early by St. FX's 2-3 zone defense but settled in nicely to keep the game tight.

In a very physical second quarter, Saint Mary's started to connect from the outside while playing strong on the defensive end and took a 46-30 lead into the break. 

Saint Mary's was led by Lindsay Panchan who scored 13 points off the bench while Justine Colley started to find her rhythm, scoring 11.  The X-Women were paced by Lia St. Pierre who scored nine points in limited action due to foul trouble.

In the third quarter, Saint Mary's stretched their lead to 26 points, pulling ahead by a 75-49 margin. StFX struggled to find an answer for the top-seeded Huskies as they continued to bury shots from outside and stifle the X-Women defensively.  Colley racked up 26 points and pulled down eight rebounds through the first three quarters.

The fourth quarter was much of the same with the Huskies maintaining a comfortable lead. Both teams emptied their benches with fewer than five minutes to play and at the buzzer the final score was 90-57.

League MVP Justine Colley was named the Subway Player of the Game for the Huskies as well as the most valuable player of the championship thanks to a 30-point, 11-rebound performance in the final.

The Huskies also got big contributions from Naomie Fequiere who scored 16, Laura Langille with 11, and Lindsay Panchan who helped out with 17 off the bench.

Subway Player of the Game for StFX was Fredericton native Rebecca Sheehan with nine points.

Lia St. Pierre led the X-Women with 14 points, second-year post Kolbi Roper chipped in with 10 points and five rebounds while Vanessa Pickard had nine.

AUS Coach of the Year, Scott Munro was thrilled with the effort from his girls.

"We played great.  You work all year to try and play your best basketball at the end of the season and I thought that was probably the best game we played this year.  We shot the heck out of it in the third quarter which got us a bit of a gap and the kids defended their butts off the whole time."

Tournament most valuable player: Justine Colley, Saint Mary's

The tournament All-Stars were as follows:

-          Lia St. Pierre, StFX

-          Lindsay Panchan, Saint Mary's

-          Grace Fishbein, Memorial

-          Claire Colbourne, UNB

-          Naomie Fequiere, Saint Mary's

Source: UNB Sports Information
Photo courtesy of Zack McKillop