JEN WALKER

This past weekend marked the beginning of a very promising playoff run for the Huskie women’s basketball team. They hosted the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds, coming away with two hard-fought victories to sweep the series and advance to the semi-finals next weekend.

The first half of game one on Mar. 4 saw both teams struggle offensively, as Saskatchewan and UBC both had field goal percentages below 30 per cent. However, it didn’t stop the Huskies from taking the lead, from the very first basket until the final buzzer. Even though it was low scoring, the first half proved competitive — ending with a buzzer beater three by Desarae Hogberg to give the Huskies the 34–21 advantage entering the second half.

Things picked up in the second half as both sides started trading baskets. The Huskies remained strong, outscoring the Thunderbirds 25–17 in the third, giving themselves a strong 20-point lead that they retained until the final buzzer, taking game one 77–56.

Saturday played host to a far more competitive game, as the T-birds arrived ready to fight for their playoff lives — led by fifth year players Diana Lee and Adrienne Parkin — who were not ready to see their Canadian Interuniversity Sport careers end — a fact that was commended by head coach Lisa Thomaidis.

“Anytime you’re playing a team with their season on the line and a few players who face the fact that it might be their potential last game as a CIS athlete, you know that they’re going to be bringing their best effort and I thought they did [that],” Thomaidis said. “I thought Diana Lee was really strong, hit a lot of shots and then Adrienne Parkin same thing, so credit to them. But [I’m] really happy we were able to get the stops when we needed to.”

Even with this extra fire, the Thunderbirds could not beat the top seeded Huskies, whose competitiveness throughout the entire game proved why they are number one in the Canada West.

Game two was close from the opening tip, with a constant back-and-forth between the two teams. UBC retained the advantage throughout the first half, although it was slight, as the biggest lead of the half was at the end of the first quarter, with the Dogs trailing 20–15.

This toe-to-toe play continued until after the half, when the Huskies came back onto the court and raced away on a 14–2 run to give them the largest lead of the night, at 47–39. This lead was short lived, as the T-birds countered with a 9–0 run of their own and closed out the third quarter only down by two points. Tensions were high going into the fourth, with more back and forth play resulting in a five point lead for UBC going into the final three minutes; until the Huskies rallied.

The final minutes of play belonged to Saskatchewan as they finished off the game on a 12–0 run. While the final run started with a jump shot from Hogberg, the remainder was sparked by a steal from fifth-year Kelsey Trulsrud that resulted in a stellar completion of a three point play. The Huskies retained a great deal of focus throughout the final minutes of the game, because they had confidence that they could finish strong and pull off the win.

Their confidence stems from the strong leadership by the veterans on the floor. Fifth-year Dalyce Emmerson commented on how she approaches her role as a leader for her team.

“We’re very calm and we stay together and that’s always been our philosophy, that’s always been the culture on our team. So, for me, if I can just bring that experience and bring that composure to the team in tight situations like that and not get flustered about score and free throws and that kind of thing, then I think that can just calm everybody else down,” Emmerson said.

This composure and camaraderie shone through as the Huskies battled their way into the semi-finals, beating the Thunderbirds by a final score of 75–68 and ending UBC’s season and their hopes of repeating a CanWest title.

Next weekend, the Huskies will face the University of Alberta Pandas in the semi-finals, hoping to fight their way back to the CanWest championship game for the third year in a row. This year they will have the added benefit of playing on their home court, supported by the ever excited atmosphere at the Physical Activity Complex.

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Image: Jeremy Britz / Graphics Editor