EDMONTON - Fourth-year forward Shea McCusker hit a game-winning three at the buzzer to lead the Pandas to victory over Victoria 67-64 Friday evening at the Saville Centre.
McCusker was joined in the winning effort by Emma Kary, who had a team-high of 17 points. The Vikes were paced by fifth-years Kate Johnson and Ashlyn Day who had a game-high 19 and 14 points respectively.
With the win, the Pandas improve to 4-1 in conference play this season, while the Vikes drop to 2-3.
It was a quiet start to the night for both offences, who combined to shoot just 3-for-10 from the field through the first four minutes of play. They would get into gear following the cold spell, with Victoria sprung by fourth-year Tegan MacKinnon who hit two threes in the quarter and Alberta getting some runs started behind second-year Jenna Karach, who finished the first with four points. Alberta bested the Vikes on the glass in the frame, out-rebounding Victoria 12-8 including a 3-1 margin on the offensive end.
The quarter ended 19-18 for the hosts, with third-year Pandas standout Claire Signatovich scoring a quarter-high eight points.
Morgan Harris got the Pandas off to a good start in the second, scoring five points at the midway point in the quarter to open up a 32-26 margin. However, MacKinnon hit two straight threes and Johnson would knock down a couple of free-throws to lead the Vikes to a 40-35 halftime lead.
MacKinnon tied for the scoring lead at the break with Alberta's Kary with 12 points. She knocked down four threes and played a large role in stopping Alberta runs from snowballing. While Alberta was solid from the floor in the first half - sporting a 43.2% field goal percentage - the third best three-point shooting team in the Canada West was largely rendered ineffective by an aggressive Vikes defence who held them to a 2/10 mark from beyond the arc.
The squads would jockey for the lead in a back-and-forth quarter that saw the Pandas get back into the lead with a phenomenal shooting display from the home side. They outscored the Vikes 17-11 and shot 58% from the field in the quarter, mainly led from a great depth effort in which six different Alberta players scored. They entered the fourth with a slim 52-51 lead setting up an exciting finish.
The defensive intensity was ratcheted up to the highest degree as both sides struggled to get anything going offensively within the first five minutes of the quarter. However, Harris was able to hit on a Kawhi-Game 7-Philadelphia-like three to give the Pandas a 58-56 lead with four minutes remaining. Four points from rookie Kiah Easton-Ihediohanma had the Pandas up six with just two minutes remaining, but with Alberta in the bonus the Vikes would crawl back to just a one-point deficit on free-throws. However, after an Ashlyn day three-pointer tied the game at 64, the game came down to one final possession in transition. Harris dumped to a wide-open McCusker who fired from beyond the arc as the shot clock expired and hit on just her second career three to send the Saville supporters into rapture. 67-64 is how it would finish in Edmonton thanks to McCusker, who also hit a huge layup with thirty seconds left to give the Pandas a three-point advantage before the Day triple.
The teams return to action tomorrow in their last regular season matchup.
