X-Women drop close exhibition game in first hoop action of the season

Antigonish, NS – The STFX X-Women played their first pre-season exhibition game of the 2022-23 season, dropping a close 76-65 match to the Laurentian Voyageurs of the OUA conference Saturday afternoon on Coach K Court at the STFX Saputo Centre.

The game marked the first one for head coach Matt Spencer who noted after the game that, "It was good for us to play at home, it was good for us to be able to have moments of quite disruptive defense, and some exciting offense. Unfortunately we came up short on the possession battle and they outrebounded us, that's what Laurentian does and that's what STFX has to fix."

The rebounds were 47 to 27 in the Voyageurs favor as they held a slight 16-15 scoring edge after the first quarter of play.

Laurentian went up 41-31 at halftime thanks to a 25-16 second quarter advantage. The X-Women fought back and won the third quarter 16-13 as they trailed 54-47 heading into the final frame, but the Voyageurs held on for the 76-65 win.

Princess Bernadino, Sydney Tabin and Bailey Tabin all scored 15 points for the Voyageurs. Rileigh Smith was their top rebounder with 12, while Bailey Tabin had 11.

Kira Atherley led the X-Women in scoring with 26 points on the afternoon and was their top rbounder with nine.

Melina Collins scored 14 points as all 13 X-Women saw time on the court for the exhibition game.

Coach Spencer noted that "I was impressed with Kira Athlerley's scoring and her overall intensity, Katie Upham's leadership is a game changer, and we had a number of people who were stars in their roles. Melina Collins had a very good day, Aliyah Fraser had a good day, as did Liz Kennedy, and I like the depth on our team."

The X-Women will be back in action next weekend, October 7-9 when they travel to Quebec for an exhibition trip. They will play games against Laval, Concordia and Sainte-Foy.  

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Recap courtesy Krista McKenna, STFX Sports Information