McMaster women make history
Marauders face Laval tonight in Toronto for shot at national title
They knew the history, felt the pressure, accepted the responsibility and dealt with it, making McMaster University history in the process.
For the first time in the storied athletic history of the Hamilton school, the women’s basketball team will play for a national championship after defeating the Saskatchewan Huskies 7366 at the Mattamy Athletic Centre on Saturday afternoon.
The Ontario champions will face Laval in Sunday evening’s game for the Bronze Baby trophy, after the Rouge et Or beat Ottawa 60-56 in a Saturday night semifinal.
The winner will be the first U Sports champion from whichever school prevails; Laval lost the 2017 championship game to McGill for the second silver medal in school history.
There has been a heavy weight hanging over the McMaster team all year. It’s a veteran roster expected to do great things, and now it has.
It cannot be easy trying to live up to expectations and do something for the first time, but they did not shy away from it. They welcomed it and used it as fuel for what’s been a storybook season.
“You obviously do feel pressure,” said Linnaea Harper, a fifth-year kinesiology student from Newmarket who had 14 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and four steals. “You do feel like: Oh, what if we lose?
“But you can’t really think of that in the front of your mind. You have to keep that in the back of your mind, and then think about a glass half full. If we accomplish this, this is a big thing. This is exciting.”
Only twice before has a McMaster women’s team advance to even a U Sports semifinal, the last time being 29 years ago. They will now win either a silver or gold medal and be known as the most successful team in school history.
“For 30 years, every year you chase it,” said iconic coach Theresa Burns, now in her 26th season with the Marauders, “and all kinds of things happen. There’s so many variables to try to control, but this team — we’ve been saying from day one — this team is very, very special and I’m just thrilled.”
McMaster used a 24-16 thirdquarter blitz to take control and then held off a late Saskatchewan rally. The Huskies, coached by former McMaster all-star and Canadian senior team coach Lisa Thomaidis, got within four late in the game, but couldn’t come all the way back.
“They’ll hit a big shot and we’ll come and answer back,” Burns said of the Marauders. “I think it’s the confidence and that fearlessness that this team has this year that’s been the difference maker. We share the ball, and when we’re coming at you in a wave of five who knows who’s going to be the scorer … I think it makes us hard to defend in that way. I love their confidence, and I just love how happy they are and how much they’re enjoying this.”
While the players and coaches enjoyed it, so did rabid McMas- ter fan Kia Nurse, the national team star and Hamilton resident who had a front-row seat. Her mom Cathy played for Burns at McMaster, and Nurse called herself “not a very calm” fan.
“Those are the girls who allow me to play pickup with them in the summer when I come home,” she said. “Mac is a place where I work out. It’s where I know people and my mom went, so it’s absolutely incredible to see them playing the way they do, and we always had so much fun. So to see them out there doing that … you can only cheer and jump. I can’t even control myself.”
Laval, ranked No. 1 in the eight-team tournament, pulled away in the final three minutes to beat Ottawa in a defensive struggle. Fifth-year guard Sarah-Jane Marios, winner of the Nan Kopp award as U Sports player of the year, had 20 points to lead Laval.
“I’m really happy with the way they answered,” Laval coach Guillaume Giroux said. “With three, four minutes, I told them, ‘Hey, we’ve been there — two weeks ago against UQAM (in the Quebec league playoffs) — and we handled it perfectly and we’re going to do the same thing.
“We’re going to be calm, we’re going to share the ball, we’re going to play together and that’s exactly what they did. I was very happy with their answer.”