The St. Thomas University men’s and women’s basketball teams faced off against the Mount Saint Vincent University Mystics on Feb. 15 at the Lady Beaverbrook Gym. While the women were victorious by a landslide, the men fell short in a nail-biter.
Women’s game
The Tommies started strong in the first quarter of the game with an 18-10 lead against the Mystics. Christina Richardson, who plays post, started the scoring for the Tommies. In the last 40 seconds of the first quarter, MSVU was able to score three points, making the score 18-10.
Tensions were high in the second quarter of the game. The crowd stood to their feet and erupted in cheers when Morgan McHatten, who plays wing, from the Tommies made a three-pointer in the last two seconds of the half, making the score 45-30.
Madison Owens, who plays forward for the Tommies, scored a final three-pointer for her team in the remaining 30 seconds of the third quarter but MSVU answered, scoring the last points, making the score at 57-40.
Things got rough in the fourth quarter of the game as a player from MSVU was knocked to the ground. Her teammates helped her off the court and onto the sidelines.
But the afternoon ended in victory for the Tommies with a score of 75-48. Emma Connors, who plays wing, made the last basket of the game in the last 40 seconds with a three-pointer.
McHatten led the team in points with 16.
Head coach Fred Connors said he was happy with how the game went and was happy being able to play in their home court after a month and a half of away games.
“That’s a really good team we just played,” he said.
“I’m really proud of the girls for playing really hard.”
Men’s game
The Tommies and MSVU were neck and neck to kick off the first quarter. They were tied at 16 with one minute remaining but MSVU pulled ahead and finished the quarter with 23-18.
MSVU continued to their winning streak into the second quarter with the score of 50-30.
MSVU kicked off the third quarter by scoring back-to-back two-pointers. The Tommies erupted in cheer as guard Michael Otoo made a three-pointer after. The team slowly began to catch up with MSVU with back-to-back points.
Ted Branden for the Tommies scored the last point of the third-quarter, leaving the score at 67-50.
The Tommies started out strong in the fourth-quarter with three straight baskets. Guard Ian Watters, forward Geoffrey Lavoie and guard Carlo Theriault all scored two points.
In the last second of the game, forward Joel Harris scored two points but it wasn’t enough to take down the Mystics, who won the game with a score of 85-82.
Harris led the team in scoring with 15 points.
Head coach John Hickey said the team fell behind early on and they didn’t have enough energy to recover.
“In the end, they were able to pull one out on us,” he said.
But he’s not letting this loss stop the team for next time.
“It’s just about finding that consistency. If we find consistency, we’ll be okay.”
