VANCOUVER, B.C. - Double-doubles from Grassick and Courtney Primeau led the top-ranked Saskatchewan Huskies to a 67-58 win over the No. 8-seeded Alberta Pandas in the fourth quarterfinal of the 2025 INDOCHINO U SPORTS Women's Final 8, presented by Victory Creative Group, at the War Memorial Gymnasium in Vancouver, Thursday (Mar. 13). Grassick, who won the Nan Copp Trophy as the national player of the year on Wednesday, finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Primeau had 11 points and a game-high 17 rebounds.

With the win, the Huskies advance to the U SPORTS Final 8 semifinals and will once again face a familiar opponent in the UBC Thunderbirds. The Huskies and T-Birds met just six days ago in the Canada West Championship, which saw the Dogs earn a 71-59 victory on their home court.

"Sometimes it's the first game that's the hardest one," said Huskie head coach Lisa Thomaidis, who recorded her 23^rd career U SPORTS Final 8 win. "Playing against an in-conference opponent, trying to beat someone three times and they're a veteran team who has been playing well and been on a roll as well."

"We started off the game really strong, I thought our defence really held them. Then we just stopped being able to score. We had open looks, and their pressure really caused some difficulties, but I mean at the end of the day, our defence got it done. A few players really stepped up defensively and Gage [Grassick] was one steal away from a triple double. Having said that she didn't have a great game by her standards, just didn't shoot the ball as well as she does but Alberta had something to say about that too."

The Huskies wasted no time in Thursday's quarter-final, scoring the first 11 points of the contest and building a 20-6 advantage by the end of the first quarter.

The second would see the Pandas adjust coming out of the break and hold the Saskatchewan offence in check. It was then that Alberta's three-point shooting came to life, as the No. 8 seed clawed back into the game.
A Logan Reider three and Primeau and-one then sparked the USask offence back into form as the Dogs recovered to take a 41-28 lead into the half.

Following a defensive third quarter, the Pandas once again caught fire from beyond the arc, holding the Huskies back from closing out the game. Despite the impressive three-point shooting, Gage Grassick found the basket on consecutive possessions to keep the Huskies ahead comfortably and secure the win.

Téa DeMong led the Huskies with 19 points on 7-for-13 shooting and was the only other Huskie in double figures in addition to Grassick and Primeau. Saskatchewan's defence started out strong and continued throughout the game, as they held Alberta to only 11 percent shooting in the first quarter, and 26.2 percent overall in the game.

Alberta, the Canada West bronze medalists, were led by Annacy Palmer with 17 points and Kia Easton-Ihediohanma who had 14 points. Claire Signatovich, the three-time Canada West defensive player of the year, had 14 rebounds and a game-high five steals.

Saskatchewan and UBC's Canada West Championship rematch is set for 6:00 PM local time (7:00 PM MT) Saturday night (Mar. 15), with the Huskies shifting venues to the Thunderbird Sports Centre.

"It's a little easier to prepare and a much lighter workload for the coaches, having just played them a few days ago," said Thomaidis "There are a bunch of things from that game that I thought we could have done a lot better but hopefully we can have the same result."