By: Jarrett Matthews
Student Journalist 

An early lead for Mohawk women's basketball could not be sustained as the Mountaineers fell 74-49 to the Canadian Mennonite University Blazers.

The visiting Blazers travelled from Winnipeg for a three-game exhibition trip in Ontario with Mohawk being their final stop. CMU typically plays in the Northern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, a cross border basketball division.

Mohawk held a 14-point lead in the first quarter while holding the Blazers to just eight points.

The roles were reversed in the second quarter when CMU exploded for 25 points and held Mohawk to seven.

Mountaineers head coach Hali Burns wanted to see more defensive pressure from her team against a CMU team who could shoot well from distance.

"They hit a ton of threes," Burns said. "We needed to do a much better job of pushing them off of the three-point line. They did a really good job of moving the ball and finding the open shooter."

Early in the second half, it was more of the same from CMU who put a ton of pressure on Mohawk and put a big gap in the score with a 27-3 run.

The Blazers also forced the Mountaineers to turn the ball over 17 times in the game.

"I'd like to see us take care of the ball a little better offensively and have more patience getting into our sets," Burns said.

Mohawk played a lot closer contested game in the later minutes but by then it was too late.

"I think our energy level in the fourth quarter and the end of the third quarter going into full court man [coverage] really brought a lot of life to the game," Burns said. "I think we did a really good job of putting pressure on them and they turned the ball over towards the end of the game."

Mountaineers Tianna Stys finished with a game-high 19 points. Mohawk out rebounded CMU 68-40 for the game.

Mohawk will play their next preseason game on the road against the Humber Hawks on Nov. 17 at 6 p.m.