McMaster, Saskatchewan clinch semifinal berths in U Sports women's Final 8
Will square off for trip to final on Saturday at Ryerson
Sarah Gates had a career-high 32 points to lead the McMaster Marauders 86-68 over Concordia in the opening game of the U Sports women's Final 8.
The second-seeded Marauders became the first team to book a spot in Saturday's semifinals at Ryerson University's Mattamy Athletic Centre.
They'll face the third-seeded Saskatchewan Huskies, who beat No. 6 Acadia 77-69 in their quarter-final.
"You know what, there's a quiet confidence in this group and it's hard to describe and we've talked about having this aura around this team," said longtime Marauders coach Theresa Burns. "We don't play scared, we're confident, we believe in each other, we're happy, we're in a good mood — that all goes a long way to being successful."
Caroline Task scored 16 of her 27 points in the third quarter to top No. 7 Concordia, which was making its first national championship appearance since 1999.
The Marauders, who are coming off their first conference women's basketball title since 2008, raced out to an 18-point lead in the second quarter, and barely looked back.
♀️🏀 |<br><br>Christina Buttenham is doing her part to preserve the lead late, with this big chasedown stuff!<br><br>79-66 Marauders, 3:05 to play! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoMacGo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoMacGo</a> <a href="https://t.co/M6ytNkC9eA">pic.twitter.com/M6ytNkC9eA</a>
—@McMasterSportsMcMaster led 26-19 to end the first, stretched their advantage to 44-28 at halftime, and were up 71-54 to start the fourth in front of a noisy crowd of mainly schoolchildren. The Stingers, which earned the at-large berth after finishing second in the Quebec conference, pulled within nine points midway through the fourth, but that was as close as they would come.
Marauders storm into playoffs
The Marauders went 21-3 to finish second in the conference regular-season standings to Ottawa, but laid down a couple of 50-point victories in their final two games to ride a wave of momentum into the playoffs.
McMaster then upset Ottawa 79-75 to win the conference final.
Top-seeded Laval begins its quest for its first national title in program history when it plays the host and No. 8 seed Ryerson Rams next. The Rouge et Or flirted with their first perfect season in team history before losing to McGill in the last game of the season to go 15-1.
The late game has the No. 4 Ottawa Gee-Gees playing the No. 5 Regina Cougars, who lost guard Kyanna Giles — their top scorer and rebounder — to a season-ending knee injury in last weekend's conference final loss to Saskatchewan.
Thursday's winners advance to Saturday's semifinals, while the losers play on the consolation side on Friday.
Huskies advance
Summer Masikewich scored 25 points, while Kyla Shand had 13 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Saskatechewan Huskies, who are making their sixth consecutive appearance in the Final 8.
Jayda Veinot topped Acadia with 22 points, while Haley McDonald, who scored a conference-record 51 points last weekend, had 20.
Acadia led 14-13 to end the first, but the Huskies broke the game open with a big second quarter to lead 38-28 at halftime. Saskatchewan led 62-51 with one quarter to play.
The Axewomen sliced the deficit to three points with just over two minutes to play, but Saskatchewan's Sabine Dukate replied with a three-pointer to seal the victory for the Canada West champions.