ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — The UPEI Panthers women’s basketball team won the Atlantic University Sports regular season crown Saturday.
They will be the No. 1 seed for next week’s conference championship in Halifax. The Panthers have a bye into Saturday’s 1 p.m. semifinal.
The Panthers clinched the top spot by defeated the Memorial Sea-Hawks 103-78 Saturday to complete the weekend sweep in St. John’s, N.L.
UPEI jumped out to a 27-8 lead after the first quarter and continued to roll, leading 57-37 at the half and 79-49 heading to the fourth.
Reese Baxendale led the way for the Panthers with 35 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals while Jenna Mae Ellsworth, Lauren Rainford and Karla Yepez each scored 16 points. Reilly Sullivan chipped in 10 points off the bench.
The Panthers hit 52 per cent of their shots from the field and three-point territory and cashed in on 90 per cent (17-for-19) of their trips to the free-throw line.
Haillie Nickerson and Alana Short had 22 and 21 points, respectively, to lead the Sea-Hawks.
The Panthers improved to 17-3 and finished tied with Acadia (16-4) with 46 points in the conference’s unbalanced schedule where some games are worth four points and others two. The teams split their two games this season but UPEI earned top spot based on outscoring Acadia by 11 points in the head-to-head meetings.
Memorial (13-7) finished third and will play sixth-place Saint Mary’s (10-10) in Friday’s quarter-final while UNB (10-10) and Cape Breton (9-11) will play in the other quarter-final.
