CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – It was a win, but it wasn’t pretty.
The UPEI Panthers defeated the St. FX X-Women 72-68 Friday in Atlantic University Sport women’s basketball action on the strength of a 19-8 fourth quarter spurred by a switch to a zone defence.
“Our defence was pretty passive,” head coach Greg Gould said. “We’ve been preaching all year long that we need to get ball pressure, and if you don't get ball pressure, teams that can shoot the ball will shoot it, and they did.”
UPEI led 22-20 after the first quarter but trailed 42-38 at the half and 60-53 heading to the final 10 minutes. And it could have been more, had the referees not changed their call on who last touched the ball with 0.5 second remaining in the third. The Panthers got the ball back under the X-Women’s hoop and Kiera Rigby nailed a three.
“We’ve got some players who have hit some big shots . . . and today that was a big shot for us,” Gould said, “but you can’t count on making three-point shots with .5 seconds left on the clock to win ball games.”
The Panthers (10-9) are preparing for the playoffs while the X-Women (1-18) are playing out a disappointing the season.
“We just didn't defend at all in the first half,” Gould said. “Late in the third quarter and the whole fourth quarter, we played zone. (The) 2-3 zone saved our ass.”
He said it only takes one person to break down on defence for everything to be magnified and then defences start scrambling to help out. He added sometimes when things aren't going well players try to guard their player even harder, but he said it’s the sum of the parts that is the important point.
“It’s not about you guarding your man, it’s about our team defence,” he said.
Rigby led the Panthers with 22 points, eight rebounds, three steals and two assists while Carolina Del Santo had 16 points and 13 boards. Jenna Mae Ellsworth had 14 points and eight assists while Jane McLaughlin added 11 points and eight rebounds.
Jamie McCarron led St. FX with 15 points while Kimberly Kingsbury chipped in 11 off the bench.
St. FX outshot UPEI from the field (40-34 per cent) and from three-point territory (44-26 per cent), but the Panthers went 16-for-23 from the free-throw line compared to 4-for-5 for the X-Women.
Men
The Panthers men were outscored 15-6 in the third quarter in dropping a 72-60 decision to the X-Men.
St. FX led 16-14 after the first quarter, but UPEI went to the dressing room with a 31-30 halftime lead. After X took off in the third quarter, they led 45-37 heading to the fourth.
Kevin Bercy had 22 points and 12 rebounds to pace the X-Men while Julius Antoine chipped in 14 points.
Senior Stefan Vujisic had a career-high 17 points on 7-for-9 shooting to lead the Panthers while Moshe Wadley chipped in 13 and seven rebounds off the bench. D’Adrian Allen had seven points and 11 rebounds.
St. FX shot better from the field (41-35 per cent) while UPEI bettered them from downtown (26-17) and from the free-throw line (58-55).
St. FX improved to 9-10 while UPEI is 3-16.
The Panthers host the Dalhousie Tigers today for games at 6 p.m. (women) and 8 p.m. (men).
