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Justine Colley is now peerless on the AUS women’s basketball single-season scoring list.

East Preston’s Colley, a fourth-year guard, had 32 points Wednesday night as the Saint Mary’s Huskies defeated the Acadia Axewomen 88-60 at Homburg Centre.

She began the night with 513 points, two behind the record of 515 she co-owned with Cape Breton’s Kelsey Hodgson. Colley had 515 in 2011 and Hodgson in 2009.

Colley will have a chance to add to her record 545 on Saturday when the Huskies close the regular season at St. Francis Xavier.

Colley, with 1,941 in her career at the end of the night, also became the all-time leader in school history, passing Jadranka Crnogorac. Crnogorac had 1,928 in a five-year career at Saint Mary’s.

“Obviously, I’m very happy,” said Colley as the Huskies, 18-1, capped their night by honouring their graduating seniors. “I just tried my hardest every day to come out and do what I can for my team. If that was scoring on a given day then I try to score as much as I can. If it was passing and trying to find the open player then I do that.”

Saint Mary’s head coach Scott Munro wants Colley to be named the CIS player of the year, which has never happened for an AUS female player.

“It’s a great thing for her to break that record and do it in such a short amount of time,” he said. “It really shows the level of basketball she’s played over the last four years.”

Should Colley return for a fifth season next year, which is her plan, she would be in easy range of the conference career mark of 2,111 owned by former St. F.X. player Theresa MacCuish.

Colley scored two baskets in the first quarter to break the single-season record, but Acadia raced out to a 19-10 lead.

But the Axewomen have been thinned out by injury and the Huskies dominated the second quarter 30-11 with Colley scoring nine straight points as part of an 11-0 run.

Acadia showed some fight in the early moments of the third quarter to get close, but they were unable to sustain any momentum. It was 58-41 after three quarters.

Colley also had 11 rebounds and three assists in 34 minutes. She sat the last five.

Laura Langille, returning from an illness, had 18 points and seven boards. Lindsay Panchan had 10 points and Amanda Smith a team-high 14 rebounds.

Kristy Moore had 17 points and Rachel Savage 13 for Acadia, 14-5. Abbey Duinker had nine points and 15 boards.

The Huskies, ranked third in the CIS, will be the No. 1 seed for the AUS tournament beginning March 8 at UNB.

Acadia played its second game since losing starting guard Lindsay Harris to a season-ending knee injury Saturday night against Cape Breton. Harris had 35 points last week as Acadia handed Saint Mary’s its only loss of the season.

Colley said the Huskies, ranked third in the CIS, may have gained from last week’s loss.

“I think, honestly, we needed that,” said Colley. “We needed to remember the feeling of losing a game. We came back the next day and worked our butts off at practice.”

By Mony Mosher

The Chronicle Herald