Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — Basketball is a game of runs, and unfortunately for the MacEwan women's basketball team, they just couldn't find the right formula to go on a big run against the University of Fraser Valley Cascades.
They battled tooth and nail for the majority of the game, but UFV was able to break away midway through the fourth quarter, as the Griffins fell 81-64 on Saturday afternoon at David Atkinson gymnasium.
Mackenzie Farmer led the Griffins with 19 points and eight rebounds, while Noelle Kilbreath added 14 points and Shannon Majeau recorded her first double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds in the loss.
UFV had five players score in double digits, led by Julia Tuchscherer with 16 points and seven rebounds.
Gurveer Sidhu had 14 points, while Nikki Cabuco had 10 as UFV improved to 2-0, while the Griffins fell to 0-2 to start the Canada West season.
"I'm really proud of our effort today. I thought the girls battled hard," said Griffins head coach Katherine Adams.
"We made a lot of adjustments to disrupt their game, we just didn't have enough gas left in the tank to get the buckets we needed and the stops on defence to get the win."
There really was not a lot of room to breathe through the first three quarters. MacEwan's biggest lead was just six early in the first quarter, and entering the fourth quarter, the biggest lead UFV could muster, was just nine points when they led 42-33.
Entering the fourth quarter, MacEwan trailed 56-50, and were pushing hard to close the slim margin, but after Majeau grabbed an offensive board and earned a tough bucket to make it 56-53, Cabuco hit a clutch three-pointer to make it 59-53.
W��| FINAL
— MacEwan Griffins (@MacEwanGriffins) November 5, 2022
Hayley Lalor nets a fourth-quarter bucket on a great passing play, but the Griffins couldn't rally from a late deficit and will fall 81-64 to the visiting @UFVCascades in @CanadaWest action. Stay tuned for a recap.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/RINjY8IF1c
Then, after Hayley Lalor converted a layup to make it 70-62, Sidhu hit a deadly jumper to make it a 10-point game. Sidhu and Cabuco seemed to always hit the timely bucket for UFV.
"That's what great teams do. They find people in positions to do something great when they need it, and they seem to get those timely buckets against us," said Adams.
"Just when it seemed like we were going to close the gap against them, they'd hit a big shot that would give them some more breathing room."
It was a rough first half in the shot department for the Griffins as they shot just 34.6% from the field, and were just 5-of-17 (29.4%) from beyond the arc, but defensively, they battled hard to keep the game close.
In the second half, they started to shoot the ball much better, finishing the game at 44% (22-of-50), but where their game really stood out was their play on the defensive end.
"You look at the score, and they scored 81, but I was really happy with our effort. We forced them into having to take some real tough shots, and they made some of them, and there's nothing you can do about that," said Adams.
"I really liked our effort on the glass. We out rebounded them, and it was a great effort against a real tough physical team."
MacEwan will travel to Calgary to take on the Mount Royal Cougars next weekend (Nov. 11-12).
