Carleton-Ottawa, Saskatchewan-UBC Semifinal Storylines | Unibball Dispatch, Year 2
It's all about the rematches — didn't these teams play in conference finals last week? And Ottawa is the best hope to avoid a gold-medal game rematch on Sunday.
Observations and laurels about the quarterfinal survivors, kind words about those vanquished in Vancouver at the women’s basketball U Sports Final 8. The semifinals are Saturday at 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET on CBC platforms.
The mild take
There is star power, for this brand of ball, on display. Saskatchewan guards Gage Grassick and Logan Reider draw in as the individually decorated performers who choose to play for Lisa Thomaidis’s Huskies, a legacy team, to win a national championship — but have not done so yet. Is it their time? What will be left of the survivor of the Carleton-Ottawa intracity entanglement in the final on Sunday evening to challenge Saskatchewan?
The Huskies have defeated UBC by 12 or more points in their last five matchups, so one should be forgiven for anticipating a Saskatchewan victory.
Carleton and Ottawa cannot avoid each other. They even scored the same number of points in their wins on Thursday.
The scores!
(1) Saskatchewan Huskies 67, (8) Alberta 58
The Huskies were never shaken, although one could wonder how much they were stirred during a wire-to-wire win where their margin shrunk to as few as five points in the fourth quarter. Téa DeMong, Sasky’s third look on offence, had a game-most 19 points.
(5) UBC Thunderbirds 55, (4) Saint Mary’s Huskies 50
The Thunderbirds’ 6-foot-4 post player, Jessica Clarke, scored 13 points, but apart from her, UBC had a 27.9 eFG% and 25 turnovers. The phrase “war of attrition” was affixed to this contest by the middle of the second quarter, spurring the question of what you want from a 4 vs. 5 matchup: mutual struggle or a statement that someone is fixing to challenge the 1-seed in the semifinal?
(2) Ottawa Gee-Gees 71, (7) Laval Rouge et Or 67 (OT)
What else but an overtime game between the teams that held the No. 1 ranking before Christmas? The Gee-Gees survivent et progressent after Allie McCarthy altered the game-tying layup try by Laval’s Sabrine Khelifi, a second-team all-Canadian, with one sec left of bonus basketball. Ottawa was sporadic offensively but limited Laval to two baskets across the last seven minutes of regulation and overtime.
(3) Carleton Ravens 71, (6) Bishop’s Gaiters 44
Few expected much suspense in a matchup of the two-time defending champion and a Gaiters side that won the Québec league title after taking a dozen defeats. Carleton still wins even if only the points from Teresa Donato (20), Dorcas Buisa (17), and Tatyanna Burke (15) counted.
Narratives for Semifinal Saturday
Will shooting percentages for the top scorers go up on Saturday, now that everyone has had a game to adjust to arena sightlines? It was a theme in games played inside the arena at UBC, where there is no wall behind the basket to help fix depth perception. On top of that, the main offensive threats contend with more physical play. You often forget about that during the lead-up to the tournament, since your desire is for every game to finish 89-88.
Fêted as the national player of the year, Saskatchewan’s Gage Grassick started to untrack late against Alberta with a neat EuroStep basket during the putaway stage of the contest. She had a hard-earned 15 points and 10 rebounds.
But it’s such a great sports name to type, Gage Grassick, that you want to see a night like the 31-pointer she had against UBC in the Canada West final on March 8.So who rates the edge when Ottawa and Carleton tip off for the second Saturday in a row and third time in 37 days? The Gee-Gees won the last one in Carleton’s gym, but the Ravens are two-time champions and had won the previous four cross-town matchups. And they get a day off for extra psychological warfare. The mind reels.
Both those teams’ all-star honorees — Ottawa lead guard Natsuki Szczokin, Carleton guard Kyana-Jade Poulin, and forward Jacqueline Urban — shot a poor percentage on Thursday. The rest day before the semifinals, one would imagine, will be as critical mentally as physically.
Szczokin, the all-Canadian, was fighting it from the free-throw line as much as from the floor. While one Gee-Gee from Barrie, Ont., could barely buy a basket, fellow Barrie native Emily Payne had a season-most 22 to help Ottawa, uh, barrie break through.)
One semifinal will come advertised as the Battle of Ottawa. But Saskatchewan-UBC is a Battle of Hamilton. The head coaches, Thomaidis and UBC’s Isabel Ormond, are McMaster Marauders alumnae who are from the city. Ormond’s group includes the rookie twins, Keira Daly and Nicole Daly. UBC had an eight-point swing when the latter Daly was thrown into the breach for some key minutes.
Unsung Seven
Standout players of the day, apart from those selected on-site. One starter apiece from winning teams, one rep from a team that lost, and two sparkplug subs.
Olivia Weekes, guard, UBC
Weekes supplied enough elbow grease to keep a fleet of buses running. The UBC-Saint Mary’s game was ragged, and recognizing Weekes seems like a tribute. The Thunderbirds point guard tallied a 12-point, 15-rebound, four-steal double-double, but only made one basket.
Tatyanna Burke, guard, Carleton
Carleton’s all-star honorees were quiet offensively, but Burke had a nice stat line with 15 points. The Ravens also held Bishop’s leading scorer Victoria Gauna to seven points on 2-of-18 from the court, and Burke was part of that group effort. (Buisa was recognized as Carleton’s player of the game.)
Allie McCarthy, forward-guard, Ottawa
While Szczokin was scuffling, McCarthy was barely ruffling the netting, going 4-for-8 from range during her 18-point, seven-rebound effort. Defensively, she played 42 minutes, often in the heavy going inside, and didn’t get charged with a foul while getting multiple blocked shots and rebounds.
Téa DeMong, forward, Saskatchewan
One of the Albertans on the Huskies was top scorer of their win over the Huskies. DeMong normally scores about 10 per game, but the 6-foot native of Hinton, Alta., went for 19 on a night when Grassick and Reider were held relatively in check.
Rosemary Dumont, forward, Laval
Knew her role in the paint and finished with a 14-point, 11-rebound double-double, making 7-of-10 shots. That represented more than half of Laval’s two-point baskets.
Teresa Donato, reserve guard, Carleton
Donato, who is one of Carleton’s own-backyard contributors, scored a game-most 20 points in 27 minutes in her sixth-woman role.
Evie Hargraves, reserve wing, Saint Mary’s
The Huskies and their seventh fifth-years1 went to the wire against host UBC. However, a rookie, the 6-foot Hargraves, came up big in her Final 8 début with nine points and a team-most nine rebounds.
Conso-bound, but not down!
Alberta: Getting via a conference third-place game and going up against the green wall that is the Huskies, well, you could understand if a team just folded. Alberta played with pride, and Annacy Palmer got her Agent Zero on by scoring 17 points with five threes. They made runs when the outsider expectation was that Saskatchewan would run away and go on cruise control.
Bishop’s: Winning the Québec league for the first time in 2004 (so, 20 seasons!) is a huge step, and part of a year where both Gaiters basketball teams, the football team, and women’s hockey title all won conference titles. Let’s focus on that.
Laval: Guard Brinly Holt is an Arrested Development-aficionado public address announcer’s dream, especially when she makes six three-pointers in one game. Laval was in the Final 8 field for the seventh time in eight seasons, although its last appearance in the final was before COVID-19. You can point out they were No. 1 at the start of the season and ended up without a conference title or a medal-game appearance, but there is being correct and there is being nice.
Saint Mary’s: It was a game effort from a seasoned team that drew the short straw of a four-time-zone trip and a matchup with the host team. The Huskies and all-Canadian guard Clara Gascoigne were just two rattle-out threes from advancing.
Note
All records and statistics are sourced from usportshoops.ca by Martin Timmerman.
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March 13-14, 2025
Hamilton, Ont. : on the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee, and Mississaugas.
The broadcasters said 7; usportshoops.ca says six and one fourth-year player.