Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – After hitting one of the most thrilling and memorable shots in recent MacEwan women's basketball history, Mady Chamberlin became something of a minor celebrity.

Well, that might be overstating it a bit, but at the very least, the MacEwan Griffins point guard was recognized off the court after her heroic buzzer-beating three-pointer that delivered a 71-68 upset win for the Griffins over then-U SPORTS No. 1 Calgary on Nov. 12.

"Actually, the funniest thing since then that happened, I was at (the University of Calgary) watching them play Alberta and I went to the washroom and these two high school girls come up to me and go, 'not to be weird or anything, but are you the one that hit that buzzer beater?'

"So, that was crazy."

As a pending graduating senior, Chamberlin is in the final few weeks of her Canada West basketball career and it's not hard for that shot to stand out as her favourite memory since coming to MacEwan in 2017.

A foul with three seconds left in a tied game gave the Griffins a throw in from the side of the offensive court.

"The play wasn't actually even drawn up to me," she explained. "It was supposed to be for Mac Farmer to go get a layup or something and they ended up doubling on her. Hayley (Lalor) drove in and kicked it out to me and I was like 'OK, we've got about a second, so I have to shoot this.' When it went in, I was like 'oh my gosh, I can't believe that just happened.'

"Celebrating with the team afterwards was pure serotonin."

Mady Chamberlin, centre, is emotional in a wild celebration with teammates following her Nov. 12 buzzer-beating three-pointer that delivered a 71-68 win for the Griffins over Calgary (Eduardo Perez photo).

Chamberlin will lead the Griffins into their first weekend action of the second semester when they host cross-town rival Alberta on Friday (6 p.m.) and Saturday (5 p.m., both games David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV presented by Co-op).

While she is still known most for her solid ball distribution as the Griffins' starting point guard, Chamberlin's offence has taken off in her final season. She enters the weekend averaging 7.2 points per game with a sizzling 43.3 shooting percentage from behind the arc.

"We know she's a pass-first point guard, we know she's a playmaker, we know she's a great distributor with high IQ, but she also has the ability to score and that's an area where she's certainly come into her own," said Griffins head coach Katherine Adams. "Hitting that shot against Calgary was huge for her confidence but also was the starting point for what we've seen from her and what we can expect to see from her moving forward the rest of the season."

For the Strathcona high school product, more offence has come from playing worry-free – a product of growing accustomed to the level over four seasons of Canada West basketball.

"I came into this year and (said) 'OK, it's my last year, I'm not going to put pressure on myself. I'm just going to go and have fun with it,' " said Chamberlin, who will graduate from MacEwan in the spring with a Bachelor of Science with a career goal of becoming a chiropractor.

"Taking that anxiety piece away has helped and I've just been a more confident, controlled player this year, which has allowed me to score more."

Chamberlin is one of four graduating seniors on a veteran Griffins team this season that has some potential to make some noise, despite entering the second semester with a 1-5 record. Everything they do is building toward the season-ending single elimination conference tournament Feb. 25-27 and the ensuing playoff drive following that.

"We're hoping to go out on a good note because quite a few of us are graduating this year," said Chamberlin. "Ideally, we can just go out, have some fun together, win some games – that would be very nice – and then compete hard in playoffs."

Adams noted they've had plenty of time to work on themselves in practice and are ready for a tough stretch that includes doubleheader weekends against all of their provincial opponents following this weekend.

"It certainly has been a season like no other and has presented many different challenges for our team on how to approach every weekend and every day," she said. "But I feel like we're in a good position. Our goal ultimately is to have ourselves ready for that final stretch and use these games as preparation to make sure we're clicking on all cylinders for when that time comes."