U of S Huskies bring Bronze Baby home after clinching national championship
Gage Grassick scores 35 points in final, named MVP
The victorious University of Saskatchewan women's basketball team returned to cheers and hugs from family and fans at Saskatoon International Airport on Monday.
The Huskies engraved their name in the history books on Sunday after a dominant 85-66 in Vancouver over the Carleton Ravens — who were vying for a third straight championship — to take the 2025 INDOCHINO U SPORTS Women's Final Eight tournament.
It's the women's team's third national championship in program history, avenging a loss to the Ravens in last year's final.
Fourth-year guard Gage Grassick, who scored a season high 35 points in the final, was named championship MVP.
"It feels unbelievable," Grassick said at the airport on Monday. "It's an [in]describable feeling and I'm super excited we got to bring home the Bronze Baby [the name of the national trophy] to Saskatoon."
The team dynamic clicked for the Huskies on the weekend, Grassick says.
"Throughout the whole season, that's what we've been working on," she said. "Just consistency and being able to play, you know, 100 per cent of the game at that level and that speed, and we were fortunate enough that this weekend it clicked."
Assessing her own performance, Grassick credited the team for setting screens, and pulling down rebounds that led to second-chance points.
"I say this so often, like so much [of] what happens on the basketball court doesn't show up on a stat sheet," Grassick said.
The Huskies have been a major force for the last 15 years, winning three titles in that span and going to the final another three times.
Head coach Lisa Thomaidis said the Huskies team was firing on all cylinders in the tournament, especially after beating the Alberta Pandas in the quarter-finals.
"I thought after that day we we're rolling," Thomaidis said. "Our team was super focused, and played their best basketball when it meant the most."
Thomaidis says playing the Ravens for the second year in a row helped her team prepare.
"We learned lots of lessons from playing against them last year in the final," she said. "And I thought we really took those lessons and made some improvements, and were very well prepared this time around."
Thomaidis had high praise for Grassick.
"She showed why she's the best player in the country right now — and it's not even close," Thomaidis said. "But we had lots of contributions from many different players and that really was the difference maker."
For now, Grassick says, the Huskies deserve a couple days off.
"We're going to celebrate the accomplishment we had this year, and then start thinking about next year and how we can continue our success."
The entire Huskies roster still has eligibility left so will be among the favourites to repeat.
With files from Scott Larson