Justine Colley Breaks 515pt AUS Scoring Record-Best Player in CIS?

Justine Colley the fourth year guard for the Saint Mary’s Huskies broke her own single season AUS scoring record.  On Feb 21 playing in front of the home crowd the SMU guard accomplished the record against the Acadia Axewomen and went on to add to her total at St FX setting the single season record at 564 points.  Colley tied the previous record in 2010/11 at 515 points which she shared with Kelsey Hodgson a Cape Breton University Graduate who set the mark in 2008/09.

Colley a 4th year guard out of Halifax speaks about her decision to stay close to home and achieving such a goal as a Saint Mary’s Husky saying “hopefully eastern players recognize if they stay close to home and work hard the recognition and opportunities will come.”

Colley, a member of the 2012 Canadian Junior Women’s Development Team continues to to work to take her game to the ultimate level, which is the Senior Women’s National Team. Colley also spoke on that “as a scorer here at Saint Mary’s I have to adjust my role when I go to the National level where I am known more as a defensive stopper”. She continued saying “this makes me a more complete and versatile player and only helps my team”.

Having been around the Nova Scotia Basketball scene for 20+years, I have had the opportunity to watch the progress of Colley’s development as she becomes a complete basketball player. The days when she was a wide eyed 16 year old working her tail off at clinics like Ganon Baker’s and Point Guard College have more than paid off, as she was always a leader in work ethic and attitude.

This year Colley is not only setting the AUS single season scoring record she is also leading the CIS in scoring at 28.2 pts per game while shooting 49.5%FG, 39.6% 3FG and grabbing 7.3 boards per game. All this has led to a 18-2 AUS record and a #2 CIS Ranking for her hometown Huskies.

Colley was quick to point out the importance of her teammates in all this, “my teammates do a great job of getting me the ball in good spots and also make it hard for defenses to key on me because of their own strong skills and work ethic”.

Justine will continue to work hard and push into the post season looking for an AUS and CIS championship.  Coach Scott Munro beamed about Justine’s leadership abilities and what she brings to the program.

“She is on pace to break the AUS career scoring record about half way through next season, what a great accomplishment for a hometown kid and a Saint Mary’s player.”