SASKATOON – Everything was falling for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women's basketball team in the opening frame of their U SPORTS Final 8 quarter-final against the Carleton Ravens, giving them a lead they wouldn't surrender in a 73-59 victory in Ottawa Thursday night.
"We knew we were going to be in for a battle tonight, we respect Carleton, we know they play really hard and it's always tough playing the host," said Huskies head coach
Lisa Thomaidis. "I'm really pleased with our performance and glad that we came out as strong as we did to build a lead, and that was really important."
Libbby Epoch was named player of the game for Saskatchewan after finishing with seven points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.
Sabine Dukate, who is making the fifth and final appearance at nationals, had a game-high 21 points,
Katriana Philipenko added 13 while
Summer Masikewich went five-for-five from the field for 11 points and seven rebounds.
The Huskies came out of the gates on fire. Dukate knocked down the first three three-pointers she attempted en route to 13 points in the frame. Led by Dukate, the Huskies shot 66.7 per cent from the field and 62.5 per cent from beyond-the-arc to jump out to a 30-11 lead after the opening 10 minutes.
That lead was stretched out to 21 thanks to a three-pointer from
Megan Ahlstrom halfway through the second quarter before the Ravens rallied. Carleton's offence came to life for 21 points in the frame to cut the lead to 46-32 at the half.
Saskatchewan's defence, who led the nation by allowing just 49.5 points per game in the regular season, put the game away in the third.
The Huskies limited Carleton to shooting just 15.8 per cent in the third quarter to move their lead to 58-41 ahead of the final quarter.
The fourth was mostly academic as the Huskies were able to ride out the remainder of the game en route to a dominant 14 point win over the host Ravens.
Led by Epoch with eight assists, one of the keys to the game for Saskatchewan was ball movement, as they racked up 18 assists on the night.
"I think our message year has been to move the ball and that the more people's hands it touches the better it will be and I think that showed tonight," said Epoch. "They were doubling our posts so them kicking it out was very effective."
With the win the Huskies clinch their spot in the national semifinals for the third year in a row. After a day off they'll take on the Laval Rouge et Or in a game scheduled for 2 p.m. CST on Saturday.
