If Atlantic University Sport basketball games were just 30 minutes long, it might have been a much better weekend for the Memorial Sea-Hawks men’s team.
But they consist of four 10-minute quarters, and it was that last stanza which did in the Sea-Hawks in back-to-back losses to the Acadia Axemen in Wolfville, N.S.
In both games, Memorial managed just four fourth-quarter points.
On Sunday, the Sea-Hawks (3-8) held a 45-34 halftime lead and were still in front by two points after the third quarter that saw the Axemen mount a big offensive rally.
But it came undone in the fourth, when Memorial went two-for-13 from the floor, didn’t get to the foul line once, didn’t register a point in the last 3:39 and allowed four turnovers.
Acadia, meanwhile, managed a modest 16 points in the quarter, but it was easily enough to claim its second win in as many days.
Saturday night, the Axemen prevailed 66-54 in a game that was tied 50-50 through three quarters.
The women’s team was also at Acadia over the weekend, managing a split. Following an 86-83 win Saturday night, the Lady Birds dropped an 89-75 decision Sunday.
On Sunday, Nathan Barker rebounded from a five-point performance the previous night scoring a game-high 25 points for Memorial. Boris Ristanovic added 15 off the bench for the Sea-Hawks, but no other player had more than eight.
Guard Jason Thompson led Memorial with eight rebounds and seven assists. On Saturday, the similarly bad fourth quarter contributed to the Sea-Hawks’ lowest single-game points total of the 2018-19 AUS season.
Ristanovic had 18 points for the Sea-Hawks, but no member of Memorial’s starting lineup had more than the seven recorded by Emmanuel Ring, who had the same number of rebounds. The two losses were additionally hurtful to Memorial’s attempt to hold on to a playoff spot in a conference where six of eight teams advance to the post-season.
The Sea-Hawks, Axemen (4-6) and St. Francis Xavier X-Men (3-6) are tied for fifth place, each with eight points (Memorial and St. FX both have a four-point win to their credit), but Memorial has played more games than the other two.
The Sea-Hawks are off this week before hosting the UPEI Panthers for two games at the Field House on the last weekend of the month.
The Lady Birds fell behind early Sunday, and could never catch up.
Memorial missed its first five shots and found itself trailing by 11 points less than six minutes in.
The Sea-Hawks did get to within two points later in the opening stanza, but just a couple of minutes into the second quarter, the Axewomen restored a double-digit lead they would not relinquish.
Haley MacDonald had a whopping 36 points for Acadia, which wasn’t much less than the 42 points put up by entire starting five for the Memorial.
Haille Nickerson led the Sea-Hawks with 14 points off the bench.
Sydney Stewart, with 12, Rosie Stanoev (11) and Brooklyn Wright (10) were all in double-digit scoring for Memorial, but it was far from enough to match the output of MacDonald and the other Axewomen starters, who combined for 78 of their team’s points.
Alana Short was the Sea-Hawks’ top rebounder, with seven boards.
On Saturday, Stewart scored 20 points, while Wright added 17 as the Lady Hawks posted first win of 2019.
Stanoev added 15 points off the bench and Sydney Ezekiel was close to a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds as Memorial snapped a five-game AUS losing streak stretching back to Nov. 17.
Memorial is off next weekend and resumes play on Jan. 26 as its host the UPEI Panthers at the Field House.
The Memorial women’s volleyball team was also in action over the weekend, taking on the University of Moncton in New Brunswick. MUN beat Moncton 3-1 Sunday following 3-2 and 3-1 losses Saturday and Friday. The Sea-Hawks are 1-10 on the year.
