Saskatchewan women successfully defend U Sports basketball title, beating UNB
CBC
The Saskatchewan Huskies defended their U Sports national women's basketball title on Sunday with a 77-68 victory over the University of New Brunswick Reds in Quebec City.
The turning point of the game came with 3:11 left in the fourth quarter, when Logan Reider made a key three-pointer as the shot clock was expiring to give the Huskies a six-point lead. Reider's basket seemed to knock the wind out of the UNB players.
"Experience and the fact we got some key scores, were the key for us today," said Lisa Thomaidis, the Huskies head coach who just finished her 27th season at the helm of the team. "You have to give credit to UNB, and it took us a while to adjust our defence, but our overall team toughness and resilience managed to get us through."
Reider led all players with 19 points, including four three-pointers.
Saskatchewan started the game strong and took advantage of the many shots missed by UNB to take a commanding 25-13 lead after the first quarter. The Reds managed to rebound in the second quarter but still trailed 44-32 at the half.
The Atlantic Conference champions came out strongly in the third quarter and even took a 45-44 lead after going on a 13-0 run. The Reds dominated every aspect of the game and even forced Saskatchewan into making multiple turnovers. Still, Saskatchewan had a slim 52-50 lead going into the final 10 minutes of the game.
The teams exchanged the lead, and even though the Huskies had a slim lead, UNB was forcing the game to them. However, the Reds missed too many chances, and Saskatchewan capitalized on its chances late in the game to win the coveted Bronze Baby.
Maya Findell, of the Huskies, was the team's second-best scorer in the game with 17 points, and was nearly perfect at the free-throw line, making nine of 11 shots.
New Brunswick's Kylee Speedy led her team with 16 points.
Speedy and Reiner were named players of the game for their respective teams.
The Huskies were the Canada West champions going a perfect 20-0 in the regular season only to bow down to the Calgary Dinos in the Western final.
Seeded fifth in Quebec, the Huskies defeated the UBC Thunderbirds before edging Laval in the national semifinal.
As for UNB, they were seeded No. 2 by U Sports, and they defeated the Carleton Ravens in the quarterfinals before eliminating the Calgary Dinos in the semifinals.
For UNB's head coach Erin McAleenan, the silver medal is quite an achievement, considering the team hadn't been to the championship title game since 1976.
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