By Jadon Frank

Briercrest women’s basketball played the Concordia University College Thunder Saturday night, losing 70-43.

Briercrest came out of the gate strong to start the game, finding themselves up 10-8 after the first quarter, but Concordia stormed back in the second quarter to build a 30-19 lead at halftime.

Concordia continued to hold the momentum in the third quarter, building a 48-26 lead. Briercrest had their strongest quarter offensively in the fourth quarter, but were unable to contain Concordia in the process and fell to the Thunder 22-17 in the fourth quarter.

Game notes: Player of the game for Briercrest was rookie Hannah Klassen who came off the bench with 7 points, and 1 rebound. Leading players for Briercrest were Tracy Frimpong with 10 points in her second ACAC start, Claire Richardson with team leading 8 rebounds, 3 blocks and 3 steals to go with her 6 points. Laura Wild had her first ever ACAC start, while fellow rookie Karly Goertzen had a strong game off the bench with 7 points, 3 steals, and 1 rebound in a strong 20:13 playing time.

Briercrest was very strong on the defensive boards and with blocks collecting 33 and five to Concordia’s 22 and one. Concordia collected their boards on the offensive end with 20 offensive rebounds to Briercrest’s four. Briercrest was more efficient with their shots, but Concordia was able to outshoot Briercrest 73 to 39 and took 33 free throws to Briercrest’s 16.

After going on the road for the two longest road trips of the season on back-to-back weekends Briercrest will be back home for games against NAIT Nov. 16 and Grant MacEwan Nov. 17. Both games will be played at 6:00 pm.