Colborne shines as Reds open season with split

Head coach Jeff Speedy was less than thrilled with his team’s performance on Sunday morning.

“You’re not supposed to split at home. You’re supposed to sweep at home. So I’m disappointed and frustrated.”

In Saturday’s home opener, the Reds wasted no time jumping ahead of the Sea-Hawks taking an early 31-22 lead after the first quarter. The Reds relaxed defensively letting MUN outscore them 19-10 in the second quarter to square things up 41-41 going into the half.

It was a different V-Reds squad that came out in the second half. Their defensive game took over holding Memorial to only 24 points in the final two quarters and limiting them to a 36.1 field goal percentage. The offence did the rest by nearly matching the Sea-Hawks’ second half offensive output in posting 23 points in the third quarter. The home squad added 16 more in the fourth to solidify the 80-65 win.

The UNB squad, who shot 44.3 per cent from the floor, was lead by player of the game Claire Colborne (Calgary, AB). The first-year player out of Calgary tallied 25 points, seven assists, six rebounds and three steals.

The usual suspects for the Reds were also producing. Leah Corby (Fredericton, NB) scored 10 points, five rebounds, four rebounds and two steals, while Amanda Sharpe (Fredericton, NB) pitched in 12 points and picked up three rebounds.

Sunday’s match opened in a similar fashion to season opener with the Reds jumping out to an early lead 20-11 in the first quarter and opened up a 15-point lead at one point in the second quarter. Then the UNB defence promptly fell asleep, allowing a 14-2 run to let Memorial creep back into the game.

“They went on an 8-0 run because we relaxed and let them back in it,” explained Speedy. “We scored then they had another 6-0 run so it became a 14-2 run. We got a little complacent there and took our foot off the gas and let them back in and then it was a dog fight the rest of the way.”

The Reds were hanging on to a slim 51-47 lead heading into the fourth. To the dismay of the home crowd, the V-Reds could not shut down the Sea-Hawks.

The Memorial offence, led by Brittany Dalton and Grace Fishbein, caught fire in the fourth draining 30 points in the final frame and closed out the match with some impressive free throw shooting, with a 72.7 per cent efficiency for the game.

The Reds offence struggled to get back into the match that slipped from their grasp, but to no avail as the Sea-Hawks hung on for the 77-71 victory to force the split.

The Reds shooters weren’t clicking as they went 37.5 per cent from the floor. However, as coach Speedy explains, it wasn’t only their offensive play that let them down.

“We got beat off the dribble too much and we would help too much or too aggressively or the wrong person would help and we would not close out back on the shooters. They scored 30 points in the fourth quarter. You’re not going to beat middle school teams by giving up 30 points in the fourth quarter.”

“I think we dictated the tempo,” continued Speedy. “But I think they dictated who wanted the game more in the fourth quarter by the way they ran their offence and they way we didn’t do things defensively. I thought the tempo was to our liking, but we didn’t get enough stops to emphasize that.”

Despite the loss, it was another strong showing for Colborne, who was named the player of the game for the second day in a row.  The 6’0” wing posted 29 points with five boards and went 10 for 10 from the free throw line.

“Claire was recruited to score and she was our leading scorer for both games. We would like her to rebound a bit more because I think we got killed off the board in the second half, but she is first on the team in assists. She’s the complete package for sure.”

Colborne is quite happy with her new home and to get a taste of AUS basketball.

“I love it. I’m happy to be playing out East and it’s been great so far. My teammates are really awesome.”

As for now, Colborne and the rest of women understand it’s back to the drawing board to work on their defensive play.

“It’s just going to be a lesson learned. When we’re up, we have to stay composed and play our game and not let them transition quickly on the breakout.”

Speedy is also taking the same approach heading into next weekend.

“There’s going to be a lot games that come right down to the wire. So, if we learn from this and play better in the fourth quarter in the future, we’ll take advantage of some of those opportunities. We’ve just got to learn from this one.”

The Varsity Reds will be back in action next weekend at they travel to UPEI for a pair of matches.