The Miramichi Her-Icanes did not exist this time last year.
Fast forward to 2024 and the ‘Canes’ star player is the Maritime Women’s Basketball Association regular season scoring champion.
Lauren Rainford averaged 23.5 points per game this season with the Miramichi expansion squad. She capped her remarkable season with 25 points Sunday in a loss to the Fredericton Freeze.
Courtney Donaldson of Lake City 56ers of Dartmouth/Cole Harbour finished second with a 19.4 average and teammate Elizabeth Iseyemi had 17.4. Leonie Elbert of Moncton Mystics was fourth at 18.7 points per outing and Alaina McMillan of Halifax Thunder rounded out the top five at 15.8.
Courtney Thompson of Saint John’s Port City Fog finished sixth at 15.4 and Allie McCarthy of Fredericton Freeze was seventh with a 14.1 average. Allie Berry of Moncton and Thunder’s Justine Colley-Leger were eighth at 13.6 and Port City’s Rachel Farwell 10th at 13.4 points per game.
On the rebound side, Miramichi’s Abby Miller was the pacesetter, grabbing 9.6 boars a game. Berry was second at 9.3, followed closely by Fog’s Kaylee Kilpatrick at 9.2 and Iseyemi at 9.1. Moncton’s Kelsey McLaughlin hauled down 7.6 rebounds a game and Rainford was next at 7.3. McCarthy registered 7.1 per outing, Hannah Brown of Halifax Hornets was at 7.0 and the Top 10 was rounded out in a tie with Colley-Leger and Katie Upham of Thunder with 6.9 each.
Toni Biancini of the Hornets was the setup leader, averaging 5.3 assists per game followed by McCarthy (5.1), Upham (5.0), McMillan (4.7), Rainford (4.5), Kelly Vass of the Mystics and Kilpatrick (4.1 each), Donaldson (4.0), and Amanda Pearcey of the Hornets and Thunder’s Karla Yepez (3.7 each).
Vass paced the league in steals with 4.9. Rainford and Colley-Leger had 2.6 each followed by McCarthy (2.5) and Iseyemi and Thompson (2.3 each).
Thunder held almost all the cards from beyond the arc with five players atop the three-point ladder.
Sophie Atkinson held a 57.1 per cent mark to lead the way followed by McMillan’s 43.9, Grace Lancaster’s 43.2, Colley-Leger’s 41.7 and Kate Ross at 38.9. McLaughlin broke the Thunder stronghold at 37.9 and Pearcey hit threes at a 37.5 per cent clip. Fredericton’s Katie Daley was at 36.4, Kendra MacKinnon of the Hornets at 35.7 and teammate Alisha McNeil at 35.1 rounded out Top 10.
– Miramichi’s Lauren Rainford was a statistical machine for the Her-Icanes (DWinston Photo)
