Weekend sweeps
Axewomen win two from Capers while Axemen drop a pair to Cape Breton
The Acadia Axewomen swept a pair of games from the Cape Breton Capers in their return to Atlantic University Sport (AUS) basketball while the Capers men returned the favour to the Axemen.
The Axewomen won 105100 Feb. 18 in Sydney and 89-62 Feb. 20 in Wolfville while the Capers defeated the Axemen 81-73 on home court and completed the weekend sweep with an 89-83 road victory. Each game was worth four points in the standings. It was the teams’ first games since November due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here’s a recap of the games.
WOMEN Axemen 105 Capers 100
Jayda Veinot, a Port Williams native, had 31 points, nine rebounds, two steals, two assists and a block to lead the Axewomen to victory on Feb. 18.
Sarah Delorey scored 20 points off the bench while Elizabeth Iseyemi added 14 points, Sandy Saunders chipped in 13 and Olivia Moller contributed 10.
MacKenzee Ryan had 24 points for the Capers while Kiyara Letlow added 23 points and 13 rebounds.
Cape Breton led 31-25 after the first quarter but trailed 64-42 at the half and 89-68 heading to the third.
Axewomen 89 Capers 62
The second contest between the two teams was over early as the host Axewomen built a 26-7 lead after the first quarter on Feb. 20. The home side was up 51-31 at the half and 62-49 heading to the final 10
minutes.
Veinot scored 13 of her game-high 36 points in the opening 10 minutes. She also added 10 boards, four assists, two steals and two blocks during the contest. Iseyemi had 14 points and seven rebounds while Saunders had 10 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists. Delorey added 10 points off the bench.
Letlow led the visitors with 27 points and 14 rebounds while Hannah Smith chipped in 12 points.
Acadia improved to 7-3 and is tied with Memorial for second place in the conference
behind UPEI (9-0) while Cape Breton (5-6) is in fifth place.
The Axewomen head to Halifax on Feb. 25 to play the fourth-place Saint Mary’s Huskies (7-3) before the two teams play in Wolfville Feb. 27 at 1 p.m.
The regular season ends March 12 while the AUS championships are slated for March 18-20 in Halifax.
MEN Capers 81 Axemen 73
Osman Omar scored a gamehigh 23 points to pace the Capers to the victory on Feb. 18. Cooper Ward had 17 points and 11 rebounds while CJ Bennett also scored 17.
Brett Speedy led the Axemen with 21 points off the bench while Alex Muise scored 19. Eli Kraushar had 10 points and 11 rebounds while Rowan Power also scored 10 points.
The Capers held quarter leads of 23-20, 36-35 and 5747.
Capers 89 Axmen 83
Omar led all scorers again with 30 points as the Capers completed the weekend sweep on Feb. 20.
Ward and Bennett each
chipped in 10 points before 475 fans at Stu Aberdeen Court.
Muise had a team-high 22 points for the home side while Power scored 17. Thomas MacDonald chipped in 13 points, seven assists and six rebounds while Kraushar added 12 points and seven boards.
Cape Breton held quarter leads of 21-20, 43-38 and 6760.
The fourth-place Capers improved 5-6 while the last-place Axemen are 1-9. Acadia heads to Halifax on Feb. 25 to play the seventh-place Huskies (5-5) before the two teams play in Wolfville on Feb. 27 at 3 p.m.