Nova Scotia’s capital city comes alive this weekend with basketball, basketball and more basketball on the docket.
That includes numerous players who battled last season in the Maritime Women’s Basketball Association.
Atlantic University Sport women’s basketball conference championship unfolds at Scotiabank Place with six teams seeking a championship and berth in the USPORTS final in British Columbia in March.
Single elimination play begins Friday in quarter-final action.
Play kicks off at 1 p.m. when fifth-seed Cape Breton University Capers of Sydney, NS, tangle with rival St. Francis Xavier University X-Women at 1 p.m. The X-Women are seeded fourth.
Second quarter-final tilt has fourth-seeded University of New Brunswick Reds battling fifth-seed Memorial University Seahawks of Newfoundland at 3 p.m.
Pennant-winning Saint Mary’s University Huskies of Halifax and second seed Acadia University Axewomen of Wolfville, NS, earned automatic semifinal byes.
Saint Mary’s will play the lowest remaining seed from quarter-final play at 1 p.m. Saturday and Acadia gets the highest remaining seed at 6:30 p.m.
Championship Sunday is set for 1 p.m.
There are plenty of familiar faces for fans of the MWBA to watch on the weekend.
Starting with the first game, Cape Breton’s injured Kristen Taylor of Saint John’s Port City Fog unfortunately has to watch from the sidelines. Emily MacNeil of the MWBA’s Halifax Thunder is also with the Capers.
Abby Cameron and Abby Mercer of the X-Women played with Lake City 56ers of Dartmouth/Cole Harbour last season.
The second quarter-final has a number of MWBAers going head-to-head.
UNB features Katie Butts, Maheva Ngassam, Leah Travers, Ann Bastien and the injured Kylee Speedy of Fredericton Freeze. McKinley Bezanson is with the Fog and Lillian Fuller played with Lake City.
UPEI has a crew of Miramichi Hericanes including reigning MWBA MVP Lauren Rainford, Devon Lawlor and Abby Miller. Grace Lancaster played with Thunder last season.
Kaitlyn Power and Aliyah Fraser of the Halifax Hornets are with Saint Mary’s. Thunder’s Sami Russell is with Acadia.
The AUS men’s championship is held in conjunction with the women’s tournament.
All games of the championship will be streamed live on AUStv. Please note there is a fee to watch the livestreaming.
– Grace Lancaster is with UPEI Panthers (DWinston Photo)
