EDMONTON – Down 6-0 before they could blink and behind 17-2 just 4:02 into the contest, the MacEwan Griffins ended up chasing the Alberta Pandas all night long in Canada West women's basketball action.

Frustrated and stymied at every turn, less than two hours later, the Griffins finally succumbed to an 88-54 loss at the David Atkinson Gym.

Emma Kary led the Pandas with 17 points off 77.8 shooting from the field, while Brianna Fehr chipped in 13, Jayden Tanner had 12 and all 12 players wearing Evergreen scored at least one basket.

MacEwan was led by Mackenzie Farmer, who did most of the damage for the home side, dropping in a game-high 23 points, often fighting through double teams to do so.

With the result, Alberta improves to 9-1, while MacEwan falls to 2-8.

The rare Wednesday night contest was a makeup game from Jan. 15 when the Griffins were unable to play due to having only seven healthy players – one less than the Canada West requirement.

MacEwan rotated between nine players on Wednesday, but weren't able to find the top-end game they had when they knocked off Calgary four days earlier.
Right from the opening tip, the Pandas looked like the hungrier team, perhaps eager to atone for losing to 3-9 Mount Royal University last Saturday.

They bottled up the paint with their bigs, leading to multiple opportunities in transition. Defensively, they never really allowed the Griffins to find their rhythm, as MacEwan got stagnant with their ball movement, often settling for ill-advised lane drives into a wall of players.

MacEwan will need to regroup quickly as they host Lethbridge (6-4) on Friday (6 p.m.) and Saturday (5 p.m., both David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV presented by Co-op).

Alberta, meanwhile, heads into a bye weekend before next returning to action against MacEwan again on Feb. 11-12 at the Saville Centre.