QUARTER-FINAL #2: CIS championship: No. 3 Huskies off to first-ever semifinal

By Andy Watson

HAMILTON, Ont. (CIS) - The third-seeded Saskatchewan Huskies have advanced to the first national semifinal in team history, winning 70-54 over a gritty Cape Breton Capers team on Friday afternoon in the second quarter-final at the CIS women's basketball championship at McMaster University's Burridge Gymnasium.

Championship web site (complete stats): http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/wbkb

The Canada West bronze medallist Huskies will face the OUA champion and No. 2-ranked Windsor Lancers in the early semifinal on Saturday at 6 p.m., marking Saskatchewan's first trip to the final four in five CIS tournament appearances, including four in the past five years.

It will be a rematch of the 2009 quarter-final in which Windsor recovered from a 24-point deficit to defeat the Huskies 63-55.

Windsor beat Ottawa 64-46 earlier on Friday.

Against AUS champion Cape Breton, three Huskies guards posted 19 or more points.

Head coach Lisa Thomaidis said she was pleased with the offensive balance, but most pleased with the magnitude of the win.

"This is huge for the program," she said. "I just told them they made history. To make it to play for a medal regardless of what happens (in the semifinal) on Sunday, it's great."

Fourth-year guard Jill Humbert of Saskatoon led the winners with 20 points along with 10 assists and five rebounds.

"It feels unbelievable," Humbert said. "I heard we could make history and be the first team to play in a national semifinal. I'm happy we advanced."

The Huskies held fifth-year Capers senior point guard Kelsey Hodgson, the two-time CIS scoring leader, to just 14 points. It's the second straight year in the national quarter-final the Fredericton native has been held to that total.

"We played with confidence," Humbert said. "We made her (Hodgson) work for every shot. We made sure to make it hard for her to catch the ball, and if she caught the ball she had to work hard for points."

Thomaidis said a defensive switch also made scoring and receiving the ball difficult for Hodgson.

"We had to keep Hodgson in check and we knew that coming in," Thomaidis said. "We made a switch to put (third-year guard Mary) Hipperson on her after Tulloch started defending her."

It worked, tiring out the star Capers guard and giving the Saskatchewan guards an advantage against a fatigued Cape Breton defence.

Fifth-year Huskies senior guard Lindsay DeGroot of Thedford, Ont., playing on her old homecourt at Burridge Gymnasium, netted 19 points and pulled down 12 boards. Kim Tulloch of Regina contributed 19 points and nine boards.

DeGroot, in her first season with the Huskies after transferring from McMaster, was named a first-team all-Canadian for the third time on Thursday.

The Huskies shot 49% from the floor in the win (27-55), avenging a 72-63 consolation semifinal loss to the Capers at the 2009 national championship.

"It's nice to live up to the expectations, coming in as the higher seed," Thomaidis said. "We have our work cut out for them. Windsor is a good team."

The Capers will play the Ottawa Gee-Gees in the consolation semifinal on Saturday at 1 p.m.

"Defensive intensity killed us," said Capers head coach Fabian McKenzie. "They executed well."

This was the final shot at a national title for Hodgson. McKenzie said she will be missed.

"Kelsey's grown as a young lady and although she didn't have a great night, without her we would not have got here," he said.

In the first quarter, the lead changed eight teams as Cape Breton used their speed on the outside to stay with the Huskies.

But Humbert hit a clutch, momentum-gaining three-pointer to stretch the lead to 14-11 for Saskatchewan and the Huskies led 23-19 lead after first quarter. They never trailed again.

The Huskies extended the lead to 31-22 with an 8-3 run to open the second quarter, leading 40-30 at the break. Humbert had 17 first-half points.

Tulloch drained a nice jumper with seven minutes remaining in the third quarter to stretch the Saskatchewan lead to 11 points.

Saskatchewan held their largest lead of the game by 16 points in the fourth.

STAT LEADERS

Saskatchewan
Points: Jill Humbert (20), Lindsay DeGroot (19), Kim Tulloch (19)
Rebounds: Points: Lindsay DeGroot (12), Kim Tulloch (9)
Assists: Jill Humbert (10)
Russell Athletics player of the game: Jill Humbert

Cape Breton
Points: Kelsey Hodgson (14), Kari Everett (11)
Rebounds: Karmen Brown (8)
Assists: Nicole Works (4)
Russell Athletics player of the game: Kari Everett

Scoring By Quarter
1 2 3 4 T
Cape Breton 19 11 13 11 54
Saskatchewan 23 17 14 16 70

SCHEDULE & RESULTS

Friday, March 12

Quarter-final #1: Windsor 64 Ottawa 46
Quarter-final #2: Saskatchewan 70, Cape Breton 54
18:00 Quarter-final #3: No. 1 Simon Fraser vs. No. 8 McMaster (Cable 14 & SSN Canada)
20:00 Quarter-final #4: No. 4 Regina vs. No. 5 Laval (Cable 14 & SSN Canada)

Saturday, March 13

13:00 Consolation #1: No. 7 Ottawa vs. No. 6 Cape Breton
15:00 Consolation #2: Loser QF #3 vs. Loser QF #4
18:00 Semifinal #1: No. 2 Windsor vs. No. 3 Saskatchewan (Cable 14 & SSN Canada)
20:00 Semifinal #2: Winner QF #3 vs. Winner QF #4 (Cable 14 & SSN Canada)

Sunday, March 14

10:00 5th place
12:00 Bronze medal (Cable 14 & SSN Canada)
15:00 Championship final (TSN2 & SSN Canada)

-CIS-