The Memorial Sea-Hawks were looking for a tough pre-season test and that’s exactly what they got in the Marie’s Mini-Mart Fall Classic, the exhibition women’s basketball tourney they hosted over the weekend.
The Sea-Hawks were winless in three outings in the tourney, which was won by the Ryerson Rams of Toronto, who went 3-0, finishing things off with a 68-63 win over the Alberta Pandas at the MUN Field House.
The quality of Memorial’s opposition in the event was evidenced in that Ryerson topped a field that also included the Pandas and Winnipeg Wesmen, teams that ended last season ranked in the USports national top 10 and 1-2 in the Canada West conference standings.
Memorial lost 70-59 to Alberta, 84-62 to Ryerson and 90-78 to Winnipeg.
Sydney Stewart, a first-team AUS conference all-star last season, led Memorial by averaging nearly 17 points per game. She was also named a tournament all-star. Brooklyn Wright averaged 11 points for the Sea-Hawks and tied Stewart with 18 total rebounds.
Other than the score differentials, the most noticeable stat for the Lady Hawks was rebounds, where they were markedly outdone by their opponents in all three games. Memorial, which doesn’t have a lot of size on the roster, was outrebounded by a 2-to 1 ratio in the tourney, 159-80 overall.
Head coach Mark English and his charges will undoubtedly be looking for ways to counter that size deficit as they prepare for their 2017-18 Atlantic University Sport season, which begins with a Nov. 4 road game against Acadia University.
Women’s volleyball
The Memorial Sea-Hawks women’s volleyball team was in Halifax over the weekend for pre-season matches against the Dalhousie Tigers and Acadia Axewomen.
Memorial dropped its first match 3-0 to the defending AUS champion Tigers on Friday before bouncing back for a 3-2 decision over the Axewomen on Saturday.
The Memorial v-ballers will kick off their new AUS season at home against the Moncton Aigles Bleus Nov. 3 at the Field House.
