Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — Experience is everything in sports, and the Mount Royal Cougars used it to their full advantage over the young MacEwan Griffins women's basketball team on Saturday.
After a slow start, the Griffins were well within striking distance of MRU, only down by three at the half, but the Cougars' experience prevailed in the final 20 minutes as they earned a 78-58 win over MacEwan at the David Atkinson Gym.
Toni Gordon and Unity Obasuyi led the Griffins with 12 points each, while Samantha Hickey chipped in with eight points and seven rebounds in the loss for MacEwan.
MRU had four players reach double digits in scoring, led by Marissa Richards, who had 15 points, while Jamie Lalor recorded 14. Nora Luca almost had a double-double with eight points and 12 rebounds in the win for the Cougars.
"They have a lot of veterans who have been around a long time, and know what to do in certain key situations, and that's just not where we're at with our development and our cycle, and that's OK," said Griffins head coach Katherine Adams.
"We're learning how to compete and how to make the most of those critical moments. We do a good job generating the right shot, and we just don't convert and finish. That's OK. Let's continue to work at it, because we're doing the right things, and so much of that is learning how to compete."
MacEwan got off to a slow start in the opening quarter, but a tough bucket from Obasuyi and a steal from Gordon who drove the baseline for the strong layup closed the gap to 18-12 after the first 10 minutes.
Unity Obasuyi has 12 points in the first half - including this layup - a night after her career-high 21-point effort as the @MacEwanGriffins trail @MRUCougars 35-32.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/QBFJS61jOg
— MacEwan Griffins Women's Basketball Team (@Griffins_WBB) November 2, 2024
The Griffins continued to rally from their strong finish from the opening quarter and tied the game at 24-24 after a corner three-pointer from Obasuyi and then Hickey gave MacEwan their first lead at 28-26 with a nice floater.
A jumper from Maddy Hooper, and two free throws from Richards would give MRU the lead once again at the half
Defensively in the first half, MacEwan was locked in and forced several tough shots and put them in situations where they were giving up costly turnovers.
"I thought we had them in some tough spots at times. We'd trap and force a tough pass and scramble and get set up and force a tough shot," said Adams.
"Sometimes they hit a circus shot, good offence beats good defence, and you make tough shots sometimes. We're so close to just getting it right, and we're going to get there."
The Griffins got off to another slow start in the third quarter falling behind as much as 11 points midway through, but this time around they weren't able to rally and shrink the gap heading into the fourth quarter.
MacEwan did a lot of good things in their loss to the Cougars, but the area they struggled most in was on the glass, as they were out rebounded 59-26, including giving up 19 offensive rebounds.
Giving up that many rebounds, gave Mount Royal too many opportunities to score points, and they finished with 24 second-chance points in the win.
"It was difficult because we were trying to make it a point of emphasis that we need to box out and get bodies and some of those 50-50 balls got us there, especially on the O (offensive) glass," said Gordon.
"It wasn't for a lack of trying… We're working really hard on making our highs high and our lows less low. I think we did a good job of that today and we're working towards putting together a full 40 minutes.
"No matter what the score shows, I know in my heart the effort was there."
Ava Regier hits a three from the corner in the fourth quarter.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/SeOI9SBaEq
— MacEwan Griffins Women's Basketball Team (@Griffins_WBB) November 2, 2024
The Griffins were able to cut the Cougars lead down to 10 points, twice in t
The fourth quarter after Allie Spenrath hit a jumper to make it 61-51, but then MRU clamped down and went on a 13-2 run to put any comeback out of reach.
"The learning process is part of it, and as the game goes on and fatigue sets in, execution and decision-making skills deteriorate under fatigue, and that's something we're learning to battle through," said Adams.
"I'm thrilled with a lot of areas of our game. We had 22 turnovers today, and we forced them to 25, and that's something that we can be proud of that we can get up and defend and disrupt them offensively.
"If we can do that, some of the other details will come together in practice… we got to feel good about the first weekend of the season, we got to keep building from here."
MacEwan will be on a bye week next weekend, before travelling south to face the Calgary Dinos on Nov. 15-16.
