SASKATOON – Taking the lead with just 33 seconds left to play, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies came back from a deficit that was as many as 11 points to knock off the UBC Thunderbirds in Canada West semifinal action inside the PAC on Friday night.
 
Second-year guard Carly Ahlstrom played the hero, knocking down a contested three pointer that gave the Huskies 73-72 lead and allowed them to punch their ticket to both a seventh-straight Canada West title game and a trip to the U SPORTS National Championships in the process.
 
"Huge character win for us, UBC is playing fantastic basketball and we knew coming in that this was going to be a battle and a close game," said Huskies head coach Lisa Thomaidis. "I'm so proud of our players, there were some big shots at the end of the game that we had to make to put ourselves up and I thought Carly was huge tonight for us."
 
Megan Ahlstrom, a fifth-year captain, led the way with 21 points for Saskatchewan while Summer Masikewich had another strong game recording 18 points and eight rebounds. Carly Ahlstrom finished the night with a career-high 14 points and 11 rebounds for the double-double.
 
While the season comes to an end for UBC with the loss it wasn't for a lack of effort as the visitors went toe-to-toe with the No. 1 nationally-ranked Huskies holding the lead for nearly the entire third quarter and deep into the fourth.
 
Fifth-year captain Jessica Hanson totalled 16 points while Canada West First Team All-Star Keylyn Filewich was good for 16 points and 12 boards.
 
A back-and-forth first half saw neither team able to grab a double-digit lead with Saskatchewan holding a slim 38-36 advantage at the break.
 
The Thunderbirds came out of the gates on fire to start the second half.
 
A 13-0 run keyed by two offensive rebounds and pair of forced turnovers allowed UBC to jump out to a 49-38 lead.
 
Saskatchewan was able to stem the tide by immediately answering with a 6-0 run of their own but were never able to completely close the gap until late.

Trailing by six points with just three minutes left to play the Huskies got back-to-back buckets from Masikewich and shut down the Thunderbirds before the heroics from Carly Ahlstrom.
 
The win combined with a loss form the top-seeded Calgary Dinos means that the Huskies will once again play host to the Canada West title game, scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday, February 28.
 
"We couldn't be happier, we were really disappointed when we knew that we didn't finish first and didn't have the right to host so the fact that we are going to be able to do that is awesome, we love playing at home," said Thomaidis. "This was a fantastic atmosphere here tonight, we really relied on the crowd to bring some energy for us."