U of S women set for tough semifinals
A chance for a three-peat is still alive.
The two-time defending Canada West women’s basketball champion University of Saskatchewan Huskies have advanced to the semifinals against the Trinity Western University Spartans after knocking off the University of Winnipeg Wesmen in quarter-final action over the weekend.
Meanwhile, the Spartans took care of the University of Alberta Pandas.
The best-of-three series against Trinity Western begins Thursday night with Game 1. Game time is 7 p.m. at the Physical Activity Complex (PAC) on the U of S campus.
“They’re going to be tough,” says U of S head coach Lisa Thomaidis, whose team (17-3 during the regular season) enters the week ranked No. 7 in the country for U Sports women’s basketball, while Trinity Western (16-4) comes in right behind at No. 9.
“They play with a lot of tempo. I saw them play against Alberta and their bigs are very athletic and mobile and their guards move the ball around very quickly and they get you running around with rotations. We’re going to have to be very disciplined and we have to do a better job defensively.
“We’re going to have to carry that into Thursday.”
After being pushed to the threegame limit, the Huskies made quick work of the visiting Wesmen Saturday in Game 3 of their quarter-final.
Saskatchewan — which opened up with a 28-14 lead after the first quarter — pulled away for a convincing 97-64 victory after rebounding from a 93-85 loss to the Wesmen on Friday night.
“There was much better energy and it started from the defensive end,” noted Thomaidis, whose team hit 50 per cent of its fieldgoal attempts Saturday compared to Winnipeg’s 31 per cent and enjoyed a 38-26 advantage in rebounding.
“We took that and it translated into the offensive end. So it was nice that we were able to put up lot of points, especially early in the game, just built some confidence and gained some momentum and put it out of reach early on. “So that was good.” Sabine Dukate led Saskatchewan with 21 points. Summer Masikewich was next with 17 points.
“We were definitely not ourselves (Friday) night,” said Masikewich. “We came out (Saturday) knowing this was do or die and we need to play like the team we know we are. I think the loss (Friday) definitely pushed us harder (Saturday) to get it done.”
Maya Olynyk came off the bench to add 11 points. Megan Ahlstrom, with 11, and Megan Lindquist, with 10, were other top scorers for the Huskies, who led by 23 (52-29) at the half and by 33 (80-47) after three quarters.
Former Huskie guard Antoinette Miller led the Wesmen with 26 points. Faith Hezekiah chipped in with 15 points and Skylar Boulanger added 12 for Winnipeg.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
In the Canada West men’s basketball quarter-finals, Saskatchewan was eliminated in two straight games by the host Calgary Dinos.
The Dinos defeated the Huskies 98-73 and 100-76.
The Huskies will lose fifth-year graduating player Alex Unruh from their lineup, but everybody else is eligible to return next season.
Unruh had 11 and 13 points in his final games with the U of S. Lawrence Moore paced the Huskies with 19 and 32 points. JT Robinson led the team Friday with 21 points.
HOCKEY
Saskatchewan will play host to both their Canada West men’s and women’s semifinal playoff hockey series this week at Rutherford Rink.
The U of S men’s squad will meet the University of Calgary Dinos, who eliminated the UBC T-Birds in quarter-final action, in a bestof-three series Thursday, Friday and, if necessary, Saturday. Those games will be played at 7:30 p.m., not the usual 7 p.m. at Rutherford.
The U of S women’s squad will play the UBC T-Birds in a best-ofthree series. Those games will go Friday, Saturday and, if needed, Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at Rutherford.
VOLLEYBALL
In Canada West men’s volleyball, Saskatchewan (10-14) narrowly missed out on a playoff spot by finishing ninth overall, just two points back of seventh place shared by the Manitoba Bisons and Thompson Rivers WolfPack.
The Huskies split with the second-place University of British Columbia Thunderbirds over the weekend, dropping Friday ’s match 3-1 (27-29, 25-21, 19-25, 13-25) before rebounding to take Saturday ’s game 3-2 (17-25, 25-21, 27-25, 2125, 15-13).
The Dogs will lose only one fifthyear player — setter Troy Wiebe.
Meanwhile, the U of S women’s volleyball team was officially eliminated after getting swept by the host UBC Thunderbirds 3-1 (15-25, 7-25, 25-16, 13-25) and 3-0 (21-25, 19-25, 15-25).
Saskatchewan bids farewell to fifth-year players Mackenzie Pek, Marguerite Ferguson and Jenelle Sokoloski.