Fredericton, NB – The St. Thomas University Tommies rebounded from a tough loss Saturday with a 73-65 victory over the Mount Allison University Mounties in their final game of the Ken Gould Invitational.
Over the course of the preseason the Tommies have been slow offensively out of the gate, but they erupted for 23 first quarter points, thanks, in most part, to rookie Kate Ross (Hamilton, ON) who had 8 points in the opening quarter.
The Tommies would finish the first half shooting 47% from beyond the arc, and pushed their lead to 42-27.
"We talked a lot about our energy," said Tommies' head coach, Fred Connors, referring to yesterday's game. "I thought our first half energy was great. We got to about the mid point of the third quarter and their depth really started to get to us. We weren't quite as crisp and they pushed very hard."
Like Connors said, the Mounties would make a push in the third quarter, outscoring STU 20-14 on the shoulders of Sophie Trail and Kaitlyn Simard, who scored 6 and 5 points, respectively, in the quarter.
With only 8 players dressed for the game the Tommies were forced to take a step back their usual high tempo, in your face style of defence, and matters got worse when third year guard, Emily Owens (Fredericton, NB) went down with an apparent ankle injury in the fourth quarter, forcing the Tommies to finish the game with seven players.
Trail would finish with a game high 17 points, while the Tommies were paced on offence by two rookies, Celine Sterckel (Moncton, NB) who had 15 points and Alyssa Jeffrey (Sussex, NB) who had 12.
Owens was named to the tournament All-Star team, where she was joined by Trail. These two teams will open the ACAA regular season on October 29th in Fredericton.
Tournament MVP
Amandine Claire Amorich Cegep de Sainte Foy Dynamiques
Tournament All-Stars
Amandine Claire Amorich - Cegep de Sainte Foy Dynamiques
Forence Fortin - Cegep de Sainte Foy Dynamiques
Tahlia Jones - Mount Saint Vincent Mystics
Kelsey Crocker - Mount Saint Vincent Mystics
Sophie Trail - Mount Allison
Emily Owens - Saint Thomas Tommies