A veteran and a rookie.
There’s the story through two weeks of jam-packed Maritime Women’s Basketball Association action when it comes to offence.
Former Canada Basketball and Canadian university star Justine Colley-Leger and rookie Eve Kalala share the lead in points per game through two weeks, each with identical 18.3 points per game averages.
Colley-Leger is with the league-leading and undefeated Halifax Thunder (4-0) while Kalala is with the Moncton Mystics (2-1).
Kalala will try and keep that pace Thursday when the Mystics showcase their home opener in a 7 p.m., contest with the Port City Fog of Saint John at Crandall University in Moncton.
Elizabeth Beals-Iseyemi of the Thunder is a titch behind with 18 points an outing.
Ella MacDonald of Port City is furth at 17.3 and Moncton’s Maddie Eustace rounds out the top five at a 16.3 clip.
Ann Bastien of the Fredericton Freeze is the league’s workhorse when it comes to time on the floor. Bastien is averaging 36 minutes and two seconds per game. Her teammate Kristen Taylor is second at 31:02 seconds and another Freeze player, Paige LeBlanc, is third at 29:44 seconds. MacDonald comes in at 29:03 seconds and Lexi MacInnis of the Miramichi HerIcanes is fifth at 29:01 seconds.
Thunder had three players leading the way in assists.
Colley-Leger leads the way with 7.3 assists per game and MacDonald is second at 5.3. Thunder’s Bianca Helmig (5.0), Lauren Armstrong of Dartmouth/Cole Harbour/Preston’s Lake City 56ers (4.5), Thunder’s Ava MacNutt (4.5) and Aki Kobayashi of Halifax Hornets (4.5) round out top five.
Maheva Ngassam of Fredericton is the MWBA’s top rebounder, grabbing 11.5 rebounds a game. Lucy Beaumont of the Hornets is next at 10.7 while Port City’s Clancy MacIntyre and Emily Dikdan of the Hornets are at 10 per game. Eva Tumwine of the Freeze is fifth with 9.5 a game.
Nalini Maharaj of the Truro Tidal Queens is atop the theft department with 5.0 steals per game. MacInnis is second at 3.5 while Colley-Leger, Ann Bastien of the Freeze and Eustace average three steals a game.
On the plus-minus watch, Helmig leads the way at plus 43. Colley-Leger is second at +36 and Beals-Iseyemi is third at +29. Kali Grootenboer of Thunder is fourth at +28 and Taylor is fifth at positive 26.
Week III opens Thursday with the Mystics-Fog tilt. It sets the stage for three games on Saturday, beginning at 1 p.m., at the University of New Brunswick at Saint John for his week’s PRO•LINE Featured Game of the Week when the Freeze visits Port City. At 3 p.m., Miramichi finds in Halifax to take on the Hornets at 3 p.m. at Mount St. Vincent University. The 5 p.m., game is in Truro at Dal Agricultural College when the host Tidal Queens welcome Lake City.
Three more games are set for Sunday, beginning at 2:30 p.m., with the Hornets greeting Truro at MSVU. A pair of 3 p.m., games have Fredericton facing Moncton at Crandall University and the HerIcanes playing Lake City at Cole Harbour High School.
– Justine Colley-Leger of the Halifax Thunder has her fingerprints all over the MWBA stats package. (Tasia McKenna Photo)
