Lady Hawks alone in first place

Memorial women take a pair of four-point wins from SMU; Sea-hawk men lose twice to Huskies

The Memorial Sea-hawks swept Saint Mary’s University on the Huskies’ home court in Halifax over the weekend to take over sole possession of first place in the Atlantic University Sport women’s basketball conference.

Memorial’s men’s squad wasn’t as successful, dropping both of its games to the Huskies.

The games were worth four points each; with unbalanced schedules in the AUS, games are worth four points in cases where teams only meet twice during the regular season.

Therefore, while the Acadia Axewomen (12-3) and UPEI Panthers (12-2) have slightly better records than Memorial (12-4). by factoring in four-points wins, the Lady Birds are four up on Acadia and six ahead of UPEI

On Sunday, Memorial trailed by one with just 23 seconds remaining in regulation time, but four successful free throws from Cameron Longley and Haille Nickerson gave the Sea-hawks the 84-81 victory.

Nickerson led MUN with 26 points, and Alana Short scored 20. Fifth-year guard Nickerson is the top female scorer in the country, averaging 24.6 points per game.

Saturday night, Short scored 20 as well in Memorial’s 72-67 win. Nickerson had 14 points and Ines Salat Margarit added 13.

The Sea-hawks are off next weekend, next playing Feb. 15-16 in Fredericton, N.B. against the University of New Brunswick.

The men’s team has lost seven of eight conference games since the New Year to fall to 6-10.

Only Acadia and UPEI trail MUN in the eight-team AUS conference where six teams make the playoffs.

The Sea-hawks continue to play without all-star Nathan Barker and reigning AUS rookie of the year Emanuel Ring’ both have missed the last eight conference games.

On Sunday, Memorial lost 84-80. Conference-leading scorer Cole Long scored 24 points for MUN and Boris Ristanovic and Daniel Foo each scored 16.

Saturday, the Sea-hawks lost 77-66. Long had 23, Jason Thompson dropped 19 points and Ristanovic netted 12.

The men’s team also doesn’t play again until Feb. 15-16 at UNB.

MONA GHIZ/SAINT MARY’S ATHLETICS Hannah Green of the Memorial Sea-hawks looks to knock the ball out of the hands of Lucina Beaumont of the Saint Mary’s Huskies during an AUS women’s basketball game Sunday in Halifax.