This is a big weekend for Memorial University’s basketball teams, and not just because they'll be dwelling on the results for six weeks as the Atlantic University Sport men’s and women’s conferences go through their annual exam/holiday breaks.
The Sea-Hawks are in Antigonish, N.S., for games today and Sunday against St. Francis Xavier, matchups that are each worth four points as opposed to the regular two points.
Four-point games are an adjustment made to allow for the fact AUS basketball schedules are unbalanced. For example, while the Sea-Hawks teams will have four games (two home and two away) against each of UNB, Cape Breton and Acadia in the 2019-20 regular season, they will face St. FX, Saint Mary’s, Dalhousie and the University of Prince Edward Island for only two games each, with the contests versus Dal and UPEI being played at the Field House in St. John’s in the New Year.
Those four shorter series will involve games that are worth four-points each.
That means a bundle of points are up for grabs in Antigonish, enough so that if the Sea-Hawks teams, which both have 4-2 records, come away with sweeps, they’ll both be sitting in first place for the month-and-a-half mid-season hiatus.
“This weekend is huge for our placement for the entire season,” said Memorial men’s starting guard Jason Thompson.
After this weekend, AUS basketball teams won’t have any conference games until Jan.4.
Men’s basketball
The Sea-Hawks’ leading scorer, forward/centre Cole Long, is also the top point-getter in the conference ... and by a fairly wide margin.
The St. John’s native is averaging 20.8 points per outing or nearly three points a game more than Cape Breton’s Osman Omar, second in the AUS.
But Cole is just one of four Sea-Hawks scoring in double figures, joined in that group by fellow starters Nathan Barker (15.0 ppg), Boris Ristanovic (12.0) and Thompson (10.7).
And there have been major contributions from players off the bench, which included Emanuel Ring in a home-court sweep of Acadia last weekend. Ring, who started Memorial’s first four game, is averaging 8.5 ppg, slightly more than his brother Deng Ring (8.2).
Guard Daniel Foo started just about half of the Sea-Hawks’ games last season, but has exclusively been in the second rotation so far this campaign and he has adapted well.
“I know I'm going to crank up our energy. Guys know they can rely on me to pick us up and keep things rolling so I just take pride in that role,” said Foo, the Corner Brook native who is averaging 6.5 points each contest.
The Sea-Hawks play the X-Men (2-3) at 8:30 p.m. NT today and 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Games can be watched live on www.austv.ca.
Women’s basketball
Like the Sea-Hawks men, the Memorial women’s roster includes the conference’s top scorer.
Guard Haille Nickerson is averaging 22.3 points per game, just slightly more than Jayda Veinot of Acadia.
The margin is much greater between Nickerson and the next highest scorer on the Sea-Hawks. That’s second-year starting guard Alana Short, whose 13.8 ppg average is still good enough to put her in the top 15 in the conference.
“I knew coming into the season I had to take on a bigger role as compared to last year,” said Short, who is also the team’s top rebounder (5.3 rpg).
“Personally, I am challenging myself to try and be consistent so that I can help the team as much as possible.”
The bench has been led by Sammi Deakin-Sharpe, named Memorial’s latest female athlete of the week after totalling 31 points and 12 rebounds in a split with Acadia at the Field House last weekend. The Australian is averaging 12.7 points and 4.5 rebounds each game, and her shooting percentage (48.9) puts her in the top five in the AUS.
However, head coach Mark English it is not just numbers that tell the story of important contributions to the Sea-Hawks in the early part of the season and cited the case of Cameron Longley.
“She’s tough-nosed and at 6-1, she does a great job defending the post,” said English recently about the third-year player, then pointing to the season-opening game against UNB when Longley had just three points.
“The thing was she held their potential all-star post to minimal points. She’s a tough gritty players who does stuff that doesn’t always show up on the boxscore, but she does her job and she does it well.”
The Sea-Hawks play the X-Women (1-4) at 6:30 p.m. NT today and 1:30 p.m. Sunday. As with men, the games can be watched online at www.austv.ca.
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Twitter: @telysports
