EDMONTON, Atla. - Facing a perennial national championship contender in the Saskatchewan Huskies, the odds were stacked heavily against the MacEwan Griffins — especially when you factor in the young Griffins squad were down several bodies due to injury and the Huskies can lean on their championship calibre pedigree.

But despite the lopsided 83-35 loss on Friday night at the David Atkinson gym, the Griffins can walk away knowing they can draw plenty of positives in their battle with the Huskies.

For Saskatchewan, the win marked their 13th of the season, with the Huskies having failed to lose a game since the opening weekend of the season. The road victory also marked head coach Lisa Thomaidis' 344th of her career, which ties her with for UBC Thunderbird head coach Deb Huband for the most in Canada West history. 

Unity Obasuyi led MacEwan with 15 points and three rebounds, while Ava Regier chipped in with six points and one rebound in the loss as the Griffins fell to 0-15 this season.

Loagn Reider led the Huskies with 17 points and Gage Grassic recorded 11 points, seven rebounds and four steals as the No. 4 ranked Huskies improved to 13-2.

Missing the services of their starting front court due to injury (Samantha Hickey and Sarah Burnell), the Griffins were outmatched in the paint, and while they had a tough time on the glass, they competed hard and forced Saskatchewan into several uncharacteristic turnovers throughout the game.

They started the game defensively strong, not allowing the Huskies to score their first bucket until the five minute mark in the opening quarter, but the Griffins also weren't able to get on a scoring run, either.

Saskatchewan eventually found their mark, and jumped out to a 16-0 run and finished the opening quarter up 22-2.

While they had moments where they gave Saskatchewan fits defensively, it was a tough night offensively for Griffins, who shot just 28 per cent from the field, and could only get to the foul line six times.

The Griffins scored just 11 points at the half, and trailed 62-17 after three quarters, but in the fourth quarter, they were only outscored 21-18.

The Griffins know they're in tough this weekend, but they're trying to take any positives they can outside of the final score.

The Griffins will once again be up against it on Saturday in the rematch, but Regier said they need to build on the positives from this loss and continue to try to stack up more positives in the finale of their weekend series with Saskatchewan.

MacEwan and Saskatchewan tip off at 3 p.m. MT (Canada West TV) on Saturday at the David Atkinson gym.