SF #1: CIS women’s basketball championship
No. 2 Saskatchewan reaches first-ever national final
Courtesy: University of Windsor sports information
March 19, 2011
WINDSOR, Ont. (CIS) – The second-seeded Saskatchewan Huskies advanced to the CIS women’s basketball final for the first time in program history thanks to a 58-40 semifinal win over the No. 6 St. Francis Xavier X-Women, Saturday evening, at the University of Windsor’s St. Denis Centre.
Championship website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/mbkb
The Canada West champion Huskies, who extended their overall winning streak to 29 games dating back to late October, will play for CIS gold Sunday at 4:30 p.m., live on TSN. They will face either top-ranked and tournament host Windsor or No. 4 Cape Breton, who face off in Saturday’s late semifinal.
Saskatchewan, the only Canada West team competing in Windsor this weekend, hopes to keep the Bronze Baby Trophy out West for the 20th consecutive season.
StFX, which had gone 0-2 in its lone previous Final 8 appearance in 1997, will play for bronze at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
For the second straight day, the Huskies jumped out to a commanding lead and never looked back.
After scoring the first 11 points on Friday in a 58-51 quarter-final victory over No. 7 Laurier, Saskatchewan opened with a 13-0 run against StFX en route to a 15-6 lead after the first quarter, a 25-19 edge at halftime and a 42-34 advantage after 30 minutes.
The game was much closer than the final score indicates however as the X-Women came back to within four points (34-30) with three minutes remaining in the third period and were still trailing by only eight (46-38) three minutes into the final stanza, but then saw the Huskies end the affair with a 12-2 run.
“Our defence was key tonight. We got contribution from a number of players, that’s the way it’s been all year,” said CIS coach of the year Lisa Thomaidis. “We didn’t start Jana (Spindler) because we wanted her to play against 23 (Ashley Stephen) at all times.”
Spindler, a fifth-year post from Port Williams, N.S., was named player of the match after she paced the winners with a game-high 18 points and tied for the team lead with eight rebounds in only 22 minutes of court time.
Fellow fifth-year seniors Jill Humbert of Saskatoon and Marci Kiselyk of Athabasca, Alta., added 14 and 10 points, respectively.
Three X-Women scored 10 points in a losing cause including Sheryl Chisholm of Antigonish, N.S., Ashley Stephen of Scarborough, Ont., and Kirsten Jones, also a Scarborough native.
The Huskies prevented the X-Women from scoring until 7:20 into the quarter.
With both teams playing a run and gun style, the intensity increased in the second quarter as the X-Women attempted to close the deficit. However, Huskies balanced offence led by Humbert who had eight points in the half, maintained a six-point lead highlighted by eight steals, five of them by CIS defensive player of the year Katie Miyazaki.
The X-Women finally found their range in the second quarter. Stephen, the AUS defensive player of the year, caught fire going 3-for-4 from field goal range with eight points, four rebounds and two steals in the half to edge St. Francis Xavier closer.
St Francis Xavier opened up the third quarter by closing the gap to four points; however that would be as close as they would get. The Huskies offence continued to find ways to get inside as Spindler utilized her size and put up six points and grabbed three rebounds. Humber and Kiselyk both reached double digits scoring 10 points each.
In the fourth quarter the Huskies showed great ball movement as they spread the X-Women’s defence in an attempt to increase the spread. A physical quarter of basketball saw both teams battle for the chance to play in the gold medal game tomorrow evening.
However, the veteran Huskies squad depth and experience paid off down the stretch as late in the third quarter they pulled away from the Cinderella St. Francis squad.
GAME NOTES: Saskatchewan has won 29 straight games overall since a 72-65 conference loss to Victoria on Oct. 30... In their first-ever CIS semifinal appearance a year ago in Hamilton, the Huskies lost 82-60 to Windsor before claiming bronze with a 78-67 win over Regina...
STAT LEADERS
SASK 15-10-17-16: 58
StFX 6-13-15-6: 40
Saskatchewan
Points: Jana Spindler (18), Jill Humbert (14), Marci Kiselyk (10)
Rebounds: Jana Spindler (8), Katie Miyazaki (8)
Assists: Katie Miyazaki (5)
Player of the game: Jana Spindler
StFX
Points: Sheryl Chisholm (10), Kirsten Jones (10), Ashley Stephen (10)
Rebounds: Kirsten Jones (8), Donisha Young (7)
Assists: Victoria Anderson (3)
CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE & RESULTS
Friday, March 18
Quarter-final #1: StFX 50, Carleton 44
Quarter-final #2: Saskatchewan 58, Wilfrid Laurier 51
Quarter-final #3: Windsor 80, Laval 50
Quarter-final #4: Cape Breton 58, Toronto 49
Saturday, March 19
Consolation #1: Wilfrid Laurier 56, Carleton 52
Consolation #2: Toronto 82, Laval 79
Semifinal #1: Saskatchewan 58, StFX 40
20:00 Semifinal #2: No. 1 Windsor vs. No. 4 Cape Breton (SSN Canada webcast) *
* Televised locally on TVCogeco.
Sunday, March 20
11:00 5th place game: No. 7 Wilfrid Laurier vs. No. 5 Toronto (SSN Canada webcast)
13:00 Bronze medal game: No. 6 StFX vs. TBD (SSN Canada webcast) *
16:30 Championship final: No. 2 Saskatchewan vs. TBD (Live on TSN)
* Televised locally on TVCogeco.
About Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Fifty-one universities, 10,000 student-athletes and 550 coaches vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca.
-CIS-