She just goes about her business.
That business is working as the engine that drives the Halifax Thunder train.
Justine Colley-Leger, named as one of the top 100 players of the century in Canadian university women’s basketball in 2020, is still doing what she always did on the basketball court.
Thriving.
And producing.
Approaching her 35th birthday, Colley-Leger is enjoying a banner year in the Maritime Women’s Basketball Association, her fingerprints all over the statistical leaderboard for the 6-0 Thunder.
Colley-Leger sits third in points per game with 18.3 an outing. She is first in assists, averaging 7.3 dishes a game. Tied for third in steals per game with 3.0, averages 1.7 blocks which is good for second and leads the league’s plus-minus category at a positive 36.3 rating.
She is a former two-time Canadian university player of the year and won Canada’s top female athlete of the year in what used to be Canadian Interuniversity Sport (now USPORTS). Colley-Leger dominated Atlantic University Sport play with the Saint Mary’s University Huskies, amassing multiple awards, scoring 2.376 points, earning 460 career assists and 55 blocks over her remarkable career.
‘I hope players across our league take a second to appreciate and acknowledge what Justine has done as a player and what she continues to do, going up against some players almost half her age,’ said MWBA commissioner, Jen Lloyd, of Dartmouth, NS. ‘She absolutely loves the game and it shows when she is on the court. She always makes everyone around her a better player.’
As the MWBA prepares for its fifth week of action with six total games on Saturday and Sunday, let’s take a look at the leader board that is peppered by Colley-Leger.
Maddie Eustace of the Moncton Mystics leads the eight-team circuit in points per game with 20.7. Bailey Russell of Fredericton Freeze is second at 18.7 and Colley-Leger third with her 18.3 mark. Eva Kalala of Moncton is fourth at 17.1 and Elizabeth Beals-Iseyemi of Thunder rounds out the top five with 16.7 per game. Beals-Iseyemi has spent the past two seasons playing professionally in Germany 2. Bundesliga with BasCats USC Heidelberg.
Colley-Leger’s 7.3 assists per game is setting the standard, followed by Aki Kobayashi of Halifax Hornets at 6.0. Fredericton’s Ann Bastien is third at 5.2 and Haley McDonald of Thunder is fourth at 4.3 setups a game. Ava MacNutt of Thunder is fifth at 4.2.
Charlee Connors of Miramichi HerIcanes, the reigning Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association player of the year with St. Thomas University Tommies, leads the rebound department with 11.2 per game. Kalala is second with 10.9 boards a game and Allie McCarthy of the Freeze is third at 10.7. Hornets’ Lucina Beaumont is fourth with 10.0 and Miramichi’s Ainsley Green rounds out the top five with a 9.0 mark.
McCarthy leads all players in minutes played, averaging 37 minutes and 37 seconds a game. Russell is second at 35:34 seconds and Bastien third at 32:53 seconds. Grace Tilley of Saint John’s Port City Fog is fourth with 31:08 seconds and Fredericton’s Kristen Taylor fifth at 30:33 seconds.
Moncton’s Jesse McCarron is the steal leader with 3.4 thefts a game. Eustace is second at 3.3 while Colley-Leger, Bastien and Fog’s Ella MacDonald are tied for third at 3.0.
Russell leads all shot-blockers with 2.7 per game. That’s followed by Colley-Leger, Beaumont and Thunder’s Kali Grootenboer at 1.7 and Evie Hargraves at 1.5 from the Lake City 56ers of Dartmouth/Cole Harbour/Preston.
Jamie-Lynn Provo of Lake City owns a 66.7 per cent three-point average to lead the trey standings. Colley-Leger is at 60 per cent from the arc followed by Hornets’ Clara Gascoigne and her 57.1 percentage. Addie Albert of Moncton, Thunder’s Sophie Atkinson and Lake City’s Victoria Fournier are at 50 per cent success rate.
Colley-Leger’s 36.3 is tops for plus-minus followed by Iseyemi’s 25.3. Gascoigne is third at 23.0, Grootenboer fourth at 20.5 and Thunder’s Sandy Saunders fifth at 20.2.
The league’s fifth week begins Saturday with two games, beginning in Fredericton on Saturday when the Freeze (2-3) meet the Hornets (5-1) at Lady Beaverbrook Gymnasium at 6:30 p.m. At 7 p.m., Port City welcomes Lake City (3-4) at St. Malachy’s Memorial High School in the heart of Saint John.
A rarity unfolds Sunday with all eight teams in action.
Fredericton and the 56ers tangle at 12:30 p.m., at the LB Gym while at 1 p.m., Port City(3-3) and the Hornets (5-1) clash at St. Malachy’s and Truro (0-7) hosts Thunder (6-0) at Dal Agricultural College. A 3 p.m., game has Moncton (5-2) welcoming Miramichi (2-6) at Crandall University.
*Cira Nutrition is the Official Electrolyte Provider of the MWBA.
– Justine Colley-Leger of Halifax Thunder is all over the MWBA leaderboard. (TC Sports Media Photo)
