MWBA Weekend Report - May 10th - 12th 2024

The second weekend of the Maritime Women's Basketball Association in 2024 saw rivalries resumed, unexpected results and big numbers put up throughout three days.

In the Halifax rivalry game between the Hornets and Thunder, who had the home court advantage and made short work of the Hornets. Led by the game's top scorer, Sydney Gucker-Wickie, with 20 points, the Thunder rocketed to victory 95-64, their twenty-second straight win in the MWBA. The Hornets saw sixteen points from Hannah Brown and thirteen by Amanda Pearcy in the loss

The Fredericton Freeze welcomed the Port City Fog to New Burnswick but showed their visitors no mercy, leading the Fog 31-13 by the end of the first quarter, where Katie Butts had nine points. There was no let-up as they almost doubled their opponent's score by the end of the first half.

Courtney Thompson, Mackenzee Ryan and Rachel Farwell gave their all to try and turn it around in a more solid second half for the Fog, but with too much ground to make up Port City were resigned to the loss. Butts was the game's leading scorer with seventeen as the Freeze defeated the Fog 77-59.

Saturday saw an exciting game at Crandall University between the Moncton Mystics and Halifax Hornets, again on the road. They were at one another from the get go and two points were all that stood between teams at the end of the first half. While Pearcy was once again leading the charge for the Hornets, Leonie Elbert and Kelly Vass led a big second half scoring rush for Moncton.

Despite Pearcy leading all on the floor with 18 points for Halifax, the Mystics, who had five players finish in double digits, got their first win of the season 75-70 over the still winless Hornets.

The same day, the Lake City 56ers saw the performance of the week from Elizabeth Iseyemi, who poured in a game-high 25 points and grabbed 14 total rebounds as her team hosted the Miramichi Her-icanes. Along with 25 points from Courtney Donaldson, the 56ers led by 15 points at the half and there was no let up for the rest of the game, ending with the 56ers blowing out their opponents 81-52.

Lauren Rainford had 25 points for Mirimachi in the loss, while Abby Miller almost managed a double-double against Lake City, as the Her-icanes looked to improve against the Halifax Thunder on Sunday. This game at the Homburg Centre started similarly to Mirmachi's match-up against Lake City, they trailed by double digits at the half, but in the third they outscored their hosts by sixteen, tying the scores ahead of the final quarter.

A good all-around team effort from Halifax in the fourth, led on offence by Justine Colley-Leger and Alaina McMillan, saw the Thunder outscore the Her-icanes 24-16 to round out a hotly contested win 83-74. Rainford again was the leading scorer, this time with 28 points for Mirimachi, while Halifax saw 19 from Colley-Leger and 18 by McMillan.

At the end of the second weekend of MWBA action the Halifax Thunder are undefeated at the top of the table, ahead of Fredericton and Lake City with identical 2-1 records. The Port City Fog leads Miramichi and Moncton's win gets them off the bottom of the table, where the Halifax Hornets sit still yet to get off the mark.

Check back here for more developments of the 2024 MWBA season and see more over on the league's official website.