Weekend split
Memorial bounced back to win Sunday after UPEI struck on Saturday
The UPEI Panthers won Saturday while the Memorial Sea-Hawks rebounded to take Sunday’s Atlantic University Sport basketball games and earn a weekend split.
Memorial won 87-79 on Sunday afternoon in women’s play after the host Panthers squeaked out a 61-59 victory on Saturday night.
The Panthers men won 71-61 on Saturday before dropping a 92-79 decision on Sunday.
Women’s
The Sea-Hawks used a big third quarter to defeat the Panthers on Sunday.
UPEI led 15-14 after the first quarter and
41-39 at the half, but the visitors outscored the host squad 28-16 in the third to take a 67-57 advantage to the fourth quarter.
“We scored lots, 79 points, we should win. We didn’t defend,” Panthers head coach Greg Gould said. “I love my team and they’re not going to quit. I just didn’t think we defended very well off the dribble today and that really resulted in some easy shots.”
Brooklyn Wright had a gamehigh 30 points to go with 12 rebounds to pace the Sea-Hawks while Rosie Stanoev scored 19 and Haille Nickerson scored 14 off the bench.
Jenna Mae Ellsworth had 25 points, six rebounds and four assists for the Panthers. Carolina Del Santo had 16 points and 15 boards while Kiera Rigby scored 14 points.
Panthers fourth-year forward Jane McLaughlin left in the third quarter with an undisclosed injury.
Gould said it had impact on the team.
“Obviously, you’re concerned about your teammate,” he said. “Jane is a big part of what we do, but they were missing their best scorer (Sydney Stewart) too.”
Rigby scored eight of her team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter Saturday as the Panthers defeated the SeaHawks.
Ellsworth had 14 points, six rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocks in the win while Del Santo hauled in 24 boards to go with 12 points, six steals, four blocks and three dimes.
Wright had a game-high 20 points for the Sea-Hawks while Jane Baird chipped in 10 points and eight rebounds.
Both teams are 8-8 but UPEI holds a two-point advantage in the standings as the conference uses an unbalanced schedule where some games are worth four points and others two.
UPEI has defeat every team in the conference, but Gould said it has to continue to get better during the next four regular season games to be ready for the playoffs.
The Panthers are in Fredericton, N.B., this weekend to play the UNB Varsity Reds Friday and Saturday.
Men’s
Daniel Gordon had a gamehigh 31 points to lead the Memorial Sea-Hawks to a 92-79 win over the UPEI Panthers on Sunday.
It came after losing 71-61 Saturday in Charlottetown.
“I thought our problem started last night in the fourth quarter,” Panthers head coach Darrell Glenn said after Sunday’s loss. “They were really starting to hurt us off penetration, we started picking up a lot of bad fouls and they started getting into a rhythm.”
The Sea-Hawks carried their play over to Sunday’s start and never looked back in snapping the Panthers three-game win streak.
“I didn’t think we matched their intensity,” said Glenn, who noted inexperience can’t be an excuse for his club any more. “We’ve played enough games now. . . I just think they were better than us tonight. I think they were able to raise their level of play to a place that we couldn’t match.”
Davion Parnsalu added 21 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three steals for Memorial while Nathan Barker chipped in 13 points and 10 boards. Memorial hit half of its 69 field-goal attempts, including going 7-for-15 from threepoint territory.
Milorad Sedlarevic had 21 points for the Panthers while rookie Bryce Corless chipped in 10 off the bench.
D’Adrian Allen was limited to 11 minutes for the Panthers. Glenn admitted fitness was an issue as Allen missed all of last season, played one game in the first semester due to an injury, played two games in January before missing two more and then played the last four games. Not having the centre changes what the Panthers can do on both ends of the floor.
Memorial held quarter leads of 29-17, 49-37 and 71-52.
On Saturday, the Panthers held quarter leads of 16-6, 33-26 and 52-37.
Allen led the Panthers with 17 points and 10 rebounds off the bench while Sedlarevic scored 11 points and Amin Suleman 10.
Parnsalu had 19 points and eight rebounds while Greg Manuel had 15 points and nine boards to pace the Sea-Hawks.
Memorial improved to 5-11 and opened a 10-point lead on UPEI (3-13) for the final playoff spot in the conference. The Panthers have 12 points on the table, so they need to win out to have a shot at the post-season.
“We’re in tough,” Glenn admitted.
But he said the team’s focus from Day 1 was to continue to get better.
UPEI is in Fredericton, N.B., this weekend for games with the Varsity Reds on Friday and Saturday.