Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Fed a steady diet of the Alberta Pandas' tough inside presence and rebounding game, the MacEwan Griffins found themselves on the wrong end of a 30-point loss on Saturday night.
Held below 50 points for just the second time this season but for the second time in as many nights, MacEwan fell 77-47 in Canada West women's basketball action at the David Atkinson Gym.
Head coach Katherine Adams said it wasn't really as bad as the score would indicate.
"It's easy to look at the score and make some assumptions about the game and what happened," she said. "But when we look at the game, we're not looking at the outcome in terms of wins. I'm really proud of the way our girls battled.
"Yes, we didn't shoot the ball particularly well, but it wasn't through lack of effort or bad shot selection. We were getting really good shots and good shots by design; they just didn't go in today. We had some good ball movement and good attacking."
The Griffins shot just 19.7 per cent from the field but managed nearly as many attempts as the Pandas got (61 to 68); they just wouldn't fall.
And that was really the difference.
So, Adams is right to look at the many other details of the game that were working for the Griffins.
"We had some players step up and play through a little bit of adversity there in the second half," she said. "They were finding something different that would work to gain us some momentum and create some opportunities.
"I thought all things considered we did a decent job of that, despite what the score-line read. It certainly didn't feel like the margin it was."
Alberta scored 34 of their 77 points in the paint as they dominated the key, helping them build as much as a 31-point lead midway through the fourth quarter.
"They rebound the ball really well and they took advantage of their size inside again," said Adams. "They crash hard and it's an area we're continuing to work on and grow in. They took advantage of it today.
"We use that as a lesson: 'there's a very good team that crashes the glass hard and gets a lot of opportunities because of it. How can we improve on this? How can we grow from this? What can we learn from this to take forward into next weekend?' "
Emma Kary led the Pandas with 16 points, while Claire Signatovich bucketed 12 points and Morgan Harris has 11. Kiah Easton-Ihediohanma narrowly missed a double double with nine points and 10 rebounds.
Hayley Lalor and Toni Gordon paced the Griffins with eight points apiece, with the latter almost hitting a double double of her own with 10 boards, as well.
"Toni sure is fun to watch," said Adams of the rookie. "She's learning, too – finding her moments where she can really shine and do what she's good at and find the opportunities to get to the rim.
"Truthfully for her, the part that doesn't show up on the stats is she did a great job defensively. She had some tough assignments and guarded their best player (Kary) for periods of time. I thought she did a really good job being disruptive on her there."
The Griffins hit the road next weekend for a series at the Manitoba Bisons.
