
Fast start proves vital as Huskies advance to national semi
The Huskies women’s basketball team came out of the gates strong then leaned on their tenacious defence late to preserve a 67-58 win over the Alberta Pandas in their national championship quarterfinal on Thursday night at War Memorial Gym in Vancouver.
Saskatchewan jumped out to a 20-6 lead after one quarter of play and at times looked like they might run the Pandas out of the gym in the opening half but Alberta refused to back down, forcing the Huskies to scratch and claw their way to a berth in Saturday’s semifinals.
“Sometimes the first game is the hardest one, playing against an in-conference opponent, trying to beat someone three times,” head coach Lisa Thomaidis said. “Started off the game strong, our defence really held them, we were scoring and then just stopped being able to score.”
The Huskies opened the game on an 11-0 run before Alberta finally got on the board midway through the opening quarter. Téa DeMong scored seven of her game-high 19 points in the frame.