HALIFAX: Sarah Delorey and her Acadia Axewomen withstood a St. Francis Xavier X-Women squad that came out of the gate ready to play to advance to the AUS basketball championships semi-final on Saturday in Halifax.
The Axewomen seemed to not be able to find their legs and shooting precision as ball luck was not on their side early on, but as the game went on the Axewomen seemed to get their groove and in the latter half of the third and final quarters held off a valiant effort from the X-Women for the 81-73 victory.
Acadia will play the winner of the St. Mary’s-UNB game that is set for Friday in one of the two semi-finals on Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
Elmsdale’s Delorey was one of the defensive bright spots for the Axewomen in the quarter-final, as she picked up four points, two from the free throw, in 18 minutes of action coming in off the bench,
She also had five defensive rebounds and two offensive rebounds.
Delorey thought she got the nerves out pretty quickly in the game.
“I thought I came out pretty strong defensively,” she said. “I was coming in focusing on defence and I think I did a pretty good job following up what I wanted to do.”
The HERH Tiger alum was pleased with her play, although she admitted the team had a rough start.
“We kept ourselves in it the whole game which we were happy about,” said Delorey. ‘We knew we had to come out stronger then ever in the second half.
“We did a good job and are happy with the win.”
Having family and friends in the crowd made her dig down more to ensure they got the victory.
“It was good to have them here,” she said. “It’s nice to have tomorrow off to recover and get ready to come out strong on Saturday.”
Len Harvey, the Axewomen’s head coach, spoke about Delorey’s play after the game.
“Sarah has been steady eddy for us all season,” he said. “I thought Sarah played excellent for us.”
He said he was happy his side came out with the win.
“St. F.X. was hot as a pistol and shot the ball really well today,” he said. “They had a good game.
“We’re happy to come out with the win and survive to play another day.”
