Courtesy Monty Mosher, The Chronicle Herald
The best defensive team in the Atlantic conference met its match in the CIS women’s basketball semifinals Saturday night in Windsor, Ont.
The second-seeded Saskatchewan Huskies, led by Port Williams native Jana Spindler’s 18 points and eight rebounds in 22 minutes, slammed the sixth-seeded St. Francis Xavier X-Women 58-40.
The news was no better for the fourth-seeded Cape Breton Capers, who fell to the No. 1 Windsor Lancers 56-47 in the late semifinal. Cape Breton will play St. F.X. today for bronze.
St. F.X., coming off a 50-44 quarter-final win over the third-seeded Carleton Ravens on Friday, hurt their chances early by allowing the Huskies to race away to a 13-0 lead in the first quarter.
Saskatchewan is 34-3 against CIS opposition this season and has won 29 in a row since October. The Huskies will play in their first national final.
"They are probably the best team in the country," said X-Women head coach Mat Skinn. "We fought pretty hard for most of the game. We’re pretty proud of our effort."
St. F.X. played in only its second national women’s tournament. It went 0-2 in its previous appearance in 1997.
Jill Humbert added 14 for the winners. Sheryl Chisholm, Ashley Stephen and Kirsten Jones each had 10 points for X-Women, who won a regional event last weekend in Ontario for their shot at a national title.
"I think we could have executed a little better offensively, but they are a big team and got in the passing lanes and did a good job of knowing their matchups and keying on our key players," said Skinn. "So you’ve got to give them full credit for it. Down the stretch they gave it inside to their big girl (Spindler) and she went to work."
Camesha McKenzie’s jumper on St. F.X.’s last possession of the first half allowed the X-Women to close the lead to 25-19.
The X-Women got to within two early in the third quarter on Stephen’s trey and a jumper from Jones.
But a pair of jumpers by the six-foot-two Spindler, a fifth-year post who played her high school career for the Horton Griffins, had the Huskies up 33-24 a few minutes later. Saskatchewan had an 11-point lead later in the quarter before Sheryl Chisholm’s trey made it 42-34 with 10 minutes to go.
Saskatchewan had the lead at 20 in the late stages of the fourth quarter.
"This is the best team in the history of St. F.X. and we have nothing to be ashamed of with what we did this year," said Skinn. "Hopefully, we can bounce back tomorrow. We’ve got something to play for so we should be excited for that opportunity."
Today’s schedule has the fifth-place game at noon, the bronze-medal game at 2 p.m. and the gold-medal contest at 5:30 p.m. (TSN)
Lancers 56; Capers 47: Nicole Works had eight points, including two treys, in a 10-0 run that saw the Capers get out front 22-13 in the second quarter. Cape Breton held on to a 24-22 lead at the half.
It stayed tight through three quarters with Windsor up 37-35.
Windsor went up by nine with 3:16 left before Kayla McCarron hit a trey. But the Capers could get no closer.
Cape Breton won its quarter-final 58-49 over Toronto late Friday. The Capers used an 11-0 run at the start of the fourth quarter to break a 38-38 tie.
Fifth-year senior forward Kari Everett had 20 points and 10 rebounds to power the win. Fourth-year guard Jahlica Kirnon added 15 points and 10 boards.
In Saturday’s consolation semifinals, Wilfrid Laurier defeated Carleton 56-52 to advance to today’s consolation final. It marked Laurier’s first-ever tournament win.
Wilfrid Laurier will play Toronto for fifth place after the Varsity Blues stopped Laval 82-79 in the other consolation semifinal. Nicki Schutz had a career-high 35 points for Toronto.