Practice for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s basketball team has been its usual high-tempo atmosphere this week, but there’s an additional air of excitement throughout the team.
For the 10th time in the last 11 seasons, the Huskies will be charging onto the court at a Canada West championship game.
It’s an atmosphere that hasn’t lost its lustre for Huskies head coach and recently-named Canada West women’s basketball coach of the year, Lisa Thomaidis.
“When I first started I never thought we would even play for a banner,” said Thomaidis. “I never thought we’d even make it to a playoff game. To be in a position that we’re in right now, when you go from the bottom you really appreciate how hard it is to get here.”
The Huskies are back in the conference’s big game, slated to host the UBC Thunderbirds on Saturday evening to decide the champion of Canada West.
In conference semi-finals last weekend, the Huskies were able to outlast the visiting University of the Fraser Valley Cascades 63-45 to not only advance to the conference gold medal game but book their ticket to U Sports national championships.
“It wasn’t a great offensive showcase by any means,” said Thomaidis. “But definitely, our defence got the job done. I thought we played incredibly tough and just kind of wore Fraser Valley down.”
While it was the Huskies’ fewest amount of points scored in a game since November when they suffered their only two losses of the season to the University of Calgary Dinos, it was one of the team’s best defensive performances of the year.
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This is according to third-year guard Logan Reider, who led the team with 19 points against the Cascades.
“We work day in and day out on our defence,” said Reider. “Just working as a whole together to get those stops that we need. We don’t have to rely on our shots falling or not, because we know our defence will be there to support us.”
Star guard Gage Grassick, who was named Canada West player of the year earlier in the week, was held to just seven points by the Cascades with the Huskies as a whole shooting 33 per cent from the field in their semi-final victory.
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While the shots weren’t falling as often as they did throughout the regular season, the ‘Dogs’ were able to take advantage beneath the basket with forwards like Courtney Primeau and Ella Murphy Wiebe finding time and space.
“Carving space out in the key helps not only us bigs score but it opens up a lane for the guards too,” said Primeau. “I think that’s also super important to have that inside play, as well as the outside play.”
The Huskies will be playing for the 10th Canada West banner in franchise history, as well as preparing for their second trip to U Sports nationals in as many years after earning a silver medal last season.
“This is the most fun time of the year and we’ve waited for it for seven months now,” said Primeau. “Just being able to get back to the national tournament is super exciting, we’ve worked our butts off to be here so it’s really awesome.”
Saturday’s gold medal game will be the first meeting between the Huskies and Thunderbirds this season, with their most recent series coming back in November of 2023.
At the end of four quarters, Reider is among those Huskies aiming to hang another banner and continue on their journey of extending the program’s dynasty window.
“This is what we want to get to,” said Reider. “This is the end goal. I think for us I’m really anticipating a really good game and we get to host here at home. It will be a really good crowd, so I’m excited and looking forward to it.”
The Huskies and Thunderbirds will tip off the Canada West women’s basketball championship game at 5:00 p.m. Saturday at the Physical Activity Complex.
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