MacEwan Athletics and Alberta Athletics
EDMONTON – Although the Griffins started strong, hanging right with the nationally-ranked Alberta Pandas for the first quarter, turnovers caught up to them in a 72-36 loss to their cross-town rivals on Friday night at the Saville Centre.
"We had four offensive rebounds to their 21 and we turned the ball over 34 times – 22 in the first half," said MacEwan head coach Katherine Adams. "We were playing against a team that has the size and length on us and we just got mismatched sometimes put us in a tough position to be able to win that battle."
Alberta finished the win committing 17 fewer turnovers than MacEwan (34-15), while pulling in 21 offensive rebounds. The extra possessions led to 31 more shot attempts for the Pandas in the win.
Every dressed Panda scored at least two points, as Alberta improved to 6-3 in the win. Veterans Claire Signatovich (13) and Jenna Harpe (16) combined for 29 of the teams' 72 points.
Harpe and fellow guard Morgan Harris also nabbed six steals each, three short of the Pandas program record.
MacEwan is now 0-9 after the loss.Toni Gordon led the Griffins with nine points, as MacEwan fell to 0-9 in the loss. Unity Obasuyi added six.
"I thought we had moments where things were good and we had moments where people stepped up," said Adams. "I thought Toni Gordon gave us a good spark. She came into the game and helped lead us in the first quarter.
"I thought Unity came in and had some really great moments and gave us a lot of energy in the second half, which was really good."
Adams also liked the team's start, which saw the Griffins leading the Pandas early in the game and only trailing them by five points through 10 minutes.
"We came out strong. We said from the beginning our goal was to win the first five minutes. I thought the girls responded really well. I'm really, really happy with our start and level of compete. But a string of some turnovers and missed shots that led to some opportunities the other way kind of clipped momentum and then we had a tough time getting it back."
The teams will meet again on Saturday (5 p.m., Saville Centre, Canada West TV).
