Axewomen cut down Dal's playoff hopes

The Dalhousie Tigers women’s basketball team fell 74-54 against the Acadia Axewomen in the quarterfinals of the AUS championships at the Scotiabank Centre on March 1.

“It was a tough loss,” said first-year guard Emily Holt. “We’ve been working towards the playoffs for the whole season, and we were as ready as we were going to be at this point.”

In the regular season standings, the Tigers finished in sixth place, and the Axewomen finished third.

“We really had nothing to lose being outranked by Acadia, so we just wanted to go in, give it our all and go for the win,” said fourth-year guard Sophie Gaube.

On the court

The game, however, started out with flat energy for both teams. The Tigers were led offensively from third-year Robertha Charles, but other than that there wasn’t much urgency to get the ball to the hoop. When they did, the Tigers were missing easy points on free throws and open layups.

Acadia led 35-21 by the half.

Acadia played strong defensively. They forced 16 turnovers in the first half, and 20 of the Axewomen’s 35 points in the half came from turnovers.

Dalhousie tightened up their play second half- allowing only six turnovers- and came out with more intensity.

Finally breaking Acadia’s defence, the Tigers scored 14 points in the third quarter.

“We all went out there with a lot of positive energy,” said Gaube, who played in her last game as a Tiger. “Even when we were down we just kept communicating and working hard.”

They played well defensively, too. Multiple times, Acadia couldn’t get a shot off before the 24-second shot clock expired.

“Defensively, I thought we worked pretty hard,” said Anna Stammberger, Dal’s head coach. “They (Acadia) didn’t have too many easy scores.”

The third quarter ended with the Axewomen up 51-35.

Twenty-one seconds into the fourth quarter, Robertha Charles fouled out of the game. This was a big blow for the Tigers as she was their leading scorer throughout the regular season, averaging 14 points per game.

“Sometimes we rely a little too heavily on one or two individuals,” said Stammberger. “When they’re not on, or when Ro went into foul trouble there today, then we struggled a bit.”

Finding consistent scoring was a problem for the Tigers all year.

“We showed some good improvement over the season for sure but we at times struggled to finish at the rim and finish our shots, and that was the problem today,” said Stammberger.

Stepping up was Holt, who averaged 3.8 points per game during the regular season. She had 11 points and eight rebounds in the game. It was her highest scoring game as a Tiger.

“I’ve started to find my place a little more in the position of a point guard,” said Holt.

Leading the Axewomen was AUS Rookie of the Year Jayda Veinot who scored 19 points. Holt was Dal’s leading scorer.

With the win, Acadia continued to win 88-84 against the UPEI Panthers in the semifinals and will play the Memorial Sea-Hawks on March 3.

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