The Carleton women’s basketball team lost the USports National Championship final to the University of Saskatchewan 85-66 in only the second loss for the Ravens all season.
The Huskies were the top-ranked squad coming into this tournament and beat the University of British Columbia 85-63 to advance to the final.
The Ravens were looking to build momentum from their win over uOttawa 84-60 the night before and came into this game with a third national championship in sight. They defeated Saskatchewan last year to win the trophy in a 70-67 nail-biter.
Saskatchewan showed their determination to avenge that defeat as they began the game strongly, using their height to control the boards on both ends. That control helped put the Huskies ahead 45-31 at halftime. Their three-point shooting was also problematic for Carleton.
Saskatchewan hit almost 50 per cent of their field goals and 86 per cent of their free throws compared to Carleton at 32 and 70 per cent respectively.
By the fourth quarter, the Huskies had pulled ahead by 20.
in defeat, Carleton accepted second place medals in the tournament with Teresa Donato named Player of the Game for the Ravens, finishing with 24 points. She was also named a tournament all-star alongside Tayanna Burke. who finished the game with eight points and seven rebounds.
Gage Grassick was Player of the Game for Saskatchewan, scoring 35 points in total. She hit seven three-pointers and 10 of 12 free point shots. She too was a tournament all-star and named MVP of the tournament, less than a week after being named Most Outstanding Player of the Year at the USports All-Canadian ceremony.
Andrea Dodig for Saskatchewan and Natsuki Szczokin for uOttawa were also named tournament all-stars. Dodig finished the championship game with 12 points while Szczokin led her team to a bronze medal over UBC, winning 68-61.
The game was held at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre at UBC with 1,744 fans in the building.
