Girdwood twins, April Scott honoured in Tigers home

By Natasha White, Staff Contributor

The final home game of the hard-court season was a nitty-gritty battle between the Dalhousie ladies and Halifax rivals St. Mary’s. Fitting, as it was the last showing at the Dalplex for fifth-year forward twins Laurie and Leah Girdwood and guard April Scott. It was also potentially the last home game for hardworking Alex Legge and top rebounder Cailin Crosby – both in their fourth year at Dal. Legge could possibly return to the team next season if all works out with her med-school admittance.
With these losses, Coach Stammberger is facing a huge hole in her starting line-up for next season. The ladies were honoured in a brief ceremony after the game for their fierce competitiveness and substantial contributions to Dal Tigers’ basketball. Let’s hope Coach Stammberger’s doing some serious recruiting for the 2010/2011 season.
Saturday night’s game proved that the Tigers just keep getting better and better. It was a bittersweet pill to swallow, as the ladies succumbed to second-ranked St. Mary’s Huskies by a mere three points: 62-65. Coincidently, threes by Huskies’ Justine Colley and Robbi Daley killed the Tigers’ opportunity for the upset.
St. Mary’s outscored Dal from behind the arch, 27 to three. Forty-seven percent at the free throw line by Dal didn’t help the cause either. Again, Dal managed to consistently break the full court press, which is a vast improvement from the start of the season. However, the disconnect lay in what to do once the press was broken, and the Tigers found themselves with numbers. Too many two-on-ones weren’t taken advantage of, and it’s going to take conversion these easy points’ opportunities to beat the best.
Thanks in part to St. Mary’s proximity, and to both Ladies’ and Men’s proactive crowd recruiting, attendance at the Dalplex on Friday was it’s largest for home games of the season. The ladies treated the crowd to an excellent showing. In the final seconds, retiring guard Scott nearly tied the game. The ball took a 360-degree trip around the rim and cruelly decided to come back out.
Alas, it was not meant to be that night. Leah Girdwood, April Scott, Cailin Crosby, Laurie Girdwood and Alex Legge should be proud of their outstanding careers as Dalhousie Tigers.