‘IT’S HUGE FOR EVERYONE’
Capers women ready for AUS championship
Capers women ready for AUS championship.
Cape Breton Capers star forward Alison Keough says winning an Atlantic University Sport women’s basketball title this season for three of the team’s graduating players is the goal this weekend in Halifax.
Natasha Roach, Jalynn Skeir and Colleen Keane are in their fifth and final season with the Capers, and will take their last crack at a conference banner.
“We’ve been talking since the start of the year that this was the ultimate goal and it’s their last season, they’ve never won one,” said Keough, a fourthyear player from Marion Bridge. “It’s huge for everyone. If it was going to happen any year, this would be the team that I would want to win with and go to the final with, because I think we have all the pieces. It’s whether we put them together or not.”
The Capers women enter the tournament as the No. 3 seed. They’ll play in Friday’s quarterfinal against the No. 6 Memorial Sea-Hawks at 3 p.m. at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax. The winner meets the No. 2 New Brunswick Varsity Reds in the semifinal round on Saturday at 3 p.m.
It’s the long way to reach Sunday’s championship game without a bye to the semifinals, but the Capers took the same route and made the final last season. They played the Saint Mary’s Huskies and lost 63-49. The four-time defending champions are the top-seed for this year’s tournament as well.
“It’s going to be a grind and no game is going to be easy,” said Keough, a perennial allstar. “But I think every team feels confident going into the tournament because every team has beat everyone, so of course we’re going in thinking we can do it. We’re definitely not going in with our tail between our legs.”
What the Capers hope to build off of is a win against the Huskies at home in their final game of the regular season. They topped SMU 57-41 at Sullivan Fieldhouse on Saturday to finish the season at 13-7.
“It was nice to get that last win. It would have been nice to win the night before. It’s always nice to get the bye, but we never had it,” said Keough. “We didn’t have it last year, and we seemed to manage. Hopefully, we can get similar results.”
The Capers are looking to win their first AUS title since 2011. CBU has won five conference championships (2004, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011).