Hawks drop Weekend Series vs. Reds

Hawks drop Weekend Series vs. Reds

(FREDERICTON, NB) It took Ibrahima Doumbouya (Calgary, AB) less than three quarters to record his double-double as the UNB Reds downed the visiting Memorial Sea-Hawks 85-64 on Sunday afternoon. 

The third-year Reds forward scored 17 points and grabbed 11 rebounds before the mid-way point of the third quarter. Doumbouya finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds. 

Chris Spurrell led the all scorers with 22, including the 900th point of his Atlantic University Sport regular season career. Spurrell was named the Subway Player of the Game. 

"It's huge, it puts us in second place now," said Spurrell, of the win. "We always say we have to have energy and effort, the two Es, and we did that from the start, and played awesome defence." 

The Reds were rolling from the opening tip, building a 16-8 lead after one quarter. 

UNB led 42-24 at the half. 

The Sea-Hawks rallied in the third, not allowing the Reds to increase their 18-point lead, but still trailing 62-44. 

The Reds continued to dominate in the fourth quarter, outscoring Memorial 23-20 for the 85-64 win. 

"They're tough, and I didn't think we had our best effort," said Sea-Hawks head coach Peter Benoite. "I thought our guys worked hard, tried hard, we just didn't hit a lot of shots, and turnovers hurt us. That was hard to overcome." 

Boris Ristanovic (Kragujevac, Serbia) led the Hawks, scoring 16 points. 

Cole Long (St. John's, NL) and Godsway Damalie (Accra, Ghana) had double-doubles. Long scored 10 points and added 12 rebounds, while Damalie had 11 points and a dozen rebounds. 

The loss drops the Sea-Hawks to 6-and-12. They head home to host the UPEI Panthers in a pair of four-point games next weekend. 

Memorial is still in the hunt for an AUS playoff spot. 

"We have some work to do, for sure, because PEI are good," said Benoite. "The whole league, everyone is beating everyone, other than Dal pulling away a bit, the whole league is tough." 

With the win, UNB is now 13-and-6, and moves into sole possession of second place in the AUS standings. The Reds host the league-leading Dalhousie Tigers in a four-point game, on Saturday. Game time is 8:00pm. 

"Both X and us have four-point games next weekend, and today's win just puts it all in our hands heading into next weekend," said Spurrell. 

 

RECAP BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics 

PHOTOS BY: Alex Dascalu/for UNB Athletics