MacEwan Athletics and Alberta Athletics
EDMONTON – Suffocated under the weight of 31 turnovers, the MacEwan Griffins lost a 10-point third-quarter lead and fell 64-57 to the cross-town rival Alberta Pandas on Saturday night at the Saville Centre – a loss that officially eliminated them from Canada West women's basketball playoff contention.
Despite the defeat, it's a battle that will serve the young Griffins well in the future as seven first-year players continue to gain experience.
"The thing that we can walk away from this game being proud of is our desire and willingness to compete and battle because it was a battle," said MacEwan head coach Katherine Adams. "U of A would probably acknowledge it was a tough, physical battle as well.
"We came prepared to play that way. We did a better job of that than on Thursday night (in a 57-40 loss to Alberta at the David Atkinson Gym). I thought we played a lot more together. Our level of compete and willingness to work for one another was a lot higher.
"We'll try to build on that momentum and feeling moving into our last weekend."
The Griffins (now 4-14 after their fifth-straight loss) will head into their final two matches of the season on Feb. 2-3 when they host Trinity Western for a weekend that will conclude with Senior Night.
Alberta, meanwhile, clinched a playoff berth with the win, improving to 10-8 ahead of a road weekend at Lethbridge on Feb. 2-3 to close out the regular season.
Rookie guard Jenna Harpe scored a team-high 15 points for the Pandas while third-year guard Vanessa Wild added 13, going 7-for-9 from the charity stripe. In their final regular season game at Saville, senior forward Brianna Carlyon scored 12 points and Elle Hendershot recorded 16 rebounds, her fourth-straight game of 16 or more boards.
Senior guard Paige Knull and fourth-year guard Kayla Ivicak both scored 15 points in the loss for the Griffins, while senior forward Kerilynn MacLennan also cracked double digits with 11 points.
The opening quarter started out slowly on the scoreboard, Alberta earning a 9-4 lead seven minutes into the game, but Knull then scored all the Griffin points in a 7-2 run to tie things up at 11-11.
That change in momentum allowed the road team to take a small lead into the next frame, aided by Lauren Earl missing a potential buzzer-beating trey.
Momentum shifts peppered the second quarter, but MacEwan was able to hold on to their lead, pulling away late in the frame to bring a six-point lead into the locker room at halftime.
Third-year point guard Kristen Monfort-Palomino sank two more buckets to start the third quarter while Alberta, only hitting one basket of 12 in the second quarter, finally hit a deuce after over seven minutes of play between frames, followed up by a trey by Harpe at the shoulder.
Monfort-Palomino responded with a jumper on the next sequence, but the Pandas then scored the next eight points to take the lead.
The Griffins managed to knot the score again at 35-35, but Alberta was regaining their confidence, shooting at over 56% in the field and taking a six-point lead into the final frame.
Their playoff lives on the line, MacEwan had their best quarter in the fourth, shooting at 50% in the frame and cutting the deficit down to two with just over six minutes left, but the Pandas replied with a 12-0 run, Wild personally sinking five of six free throws to put the game out of reach.
"For us, we didn't shoot great," said Adams. "We shot 5-for-17 in the second half. But we turned the ball over 31 times, so it just gave them opportunities that they capitalized on.
"We ran into a little bit of foul trouble with Kayla and Paige and that allowed them an opportunity to take advantage. To be completely fair, though, I thought our bench came in and did a good job. We defended tough and they gave what we needed.
"In the end, we didn't quite have enough to hang on. We were one quarter away. We were outscored 21-9 in that third quarter."
