Axewomen finish 4th at Thunder Selects Tournament

HALIFAX, N.S. - The Axewomen basketball team finished the Thunder Selects Holiday Classic tournament hosted at the Saint Mary's Homburg Centre with a 1-2 record after opening the tournament with a convincing 58-45 win over the CIS No. 7 ranked Brock Badgers on Monday, Dec. 28th.
 
Coming off the holiday break of a month since their last game - a win over the visiting UPEI Panthers on November 29 - the Axewomen took the second quarter to overcome a 17-6 first quarter deficit. Down 25-24 after one half, the Axewomen trailed 33-32 after three quarters.

A low scoring 8-8 third quarter was indicative of the time off during the holiday break for both teams. Both teams shot dismally from the floor with the Axewomen posting 21% while the Badgers shot 15%.

A final frame charge by the Axewomen, led by Chanel Smith's 12 points gave the Axewomen their only win of the tournament. Smith was named the player of the game after posting a double-double that included 21 points and 10 rebounds. Teammates Allie Berry, Paloma Anderson and Emily MacLeod finished the game with 11, 10 and 9 points respectively.

Acadia was 38% from the floor while Brock tallied a 25% field goal average.

The Axewomen advanced to the semi-final game and was matched up with Canada West's Winnipeg Wesmen who are 1-7 in conference play. The Wesmen upended the Acadia Axewomen 76-58 on 22 points from Megan Noonan. 

Noonan, the Winnipeg, MB native, paced all scorers while teammates Skylar Boulanger had 14 points and German national Lena Wenke chipped in 13. Quarter scores of 25-17 and 13-9 saw Winnipeg up 38-26 at half.

A Wesmen 26-18 third quarter increased Winnipeg's lead 64-44. A 14-12 Acadia final frame saw Winnipeg hold on to a 76-58 victory.

Halifax's Chanel Smith paced Acadia with 18 points in the loss, while Alyson Fulton - off the bench and Paloma Anderson each had eight points.

In the Axewomen's bronze medal game against AUS rival UPEI Panthers, the Panthers revenged two regular season losses to Acadia with a 73-56 win.
 
Panther Tamara Tompkins posted a game high 21 points, while Axewomen Chanel Smith netted a team high 19 points in the loss. Smith scored Acadia's most points during tournament play in each game.

Only in the first quarter did the Axewomen not trail the Panthers with the first frame deadlocked at 18. UPEI lead all remaining quarters with Player of the Game Tompkins leading the way.

Head coach Len Harvey had mixed feelings of the Axewomen's play. "We had an initial positive win, but followed it up with two lacklustre performances", pointed out Harvey.
 
With the regular season back in session the first weekend of January at Memorial, Harvey has concerns. "We need some time in the gym for practice to get back to our regular routine and habits. Memorial is a tougher opponent than their record would indicate, and we will need to be far sharper and play with better pace and space to find success. These two losses at this stage of the season may prove to be more positive than negative for us to tighten the screws up for second semester."

The Axewomen visit Memorial for two games beginning January 9 in St. John's, Nfld.