CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos played the No. 1 Saskatchewan Huskies much tighter on Saturday night, but ultimately couldn't pull off the upset in losing 83-72 at the Jack Simpson Gym.
BOX SCORE
The top-ranked and first-place Huskies will now return to Saskatoon only to prepare their gymnasium for the return of the Dinos, who solidified eighth place and the final playoff position. The teams will battle in the best-of-three Canada West quarterfinal, with the winner advancing to the conference Final Four. By virtue of their first place finish, the Huskies have an automatic berth to the CIS regionals.
The Huskies ultimately won the game with their field goal efficiency, where they were 12% better than Calgary. The Huskies went 30 for 61 from the field, including eight for 22 from beyond the arc. Calgary hit five long-range shots, with three of them going to graduating senior Ashley Hill, who finished with 17 points.
Saskatchewan looked like they were going to run away with the game early on, running out to a 14 point lead in the first quarter. Calgary was not about to end their regular season at home in blowout fashion however, reigning the score back to a more respectable 22-16 margin by the end of the first, and keeping it close from there on out.
Tamara Jarrett was exceptional in the losing effort for the Dinos, notching 20 gritty points, while Hill was her normal dependable self. Both earned the praise of their coach, Shawnee Harle.
“I thought we played harder, battled harder, and were a little more organized offensively tonight,” said Harle. “Tamara was absolutely outstanding, and Ashley had a solid game in her last home game here, which was great to see.”
Rookie Kiersten Hilton had nine points and five rebounds, while Megan Lang had six assists to round out the Dinos' effort, but the night, like so many others this season, belonged to Saskatchewan (22-2).
Once again, the Huskies got scoring from everywhere, with four different Huskies getting past the 10 mark in scoring, with Marci Kiselyk leading the way with 20. Katie Miyazaki had 12 points and eight rebounds, while Jill Humbert was one assist away from a double-double with 16 points and nine helpers.
Harle knows that while the task is daunting next weekend to upend the 22-2 Huskies just a week after playing them, Calgary (10-14) can certainly make their lives easier.
“I thought that our lapses just really hurt us tonight, against a really good team,” said Harle. “Next week we have to be better for longer. We can't lull. We can't rest. We can't forget what we're doing.”
“They're deep, they're experienced and they're well coached,” continued Harle. “But if we can execute more consistently and play good defence, you just never know what can happen.”
Calgary and Saskatchewan will face-off next weekend for the best-of-three series in Saskatoon, with tip-off for the first game going at 7:15 MT on Friday, while the second and third games will go Saturday and Sunday (if necessary) with the same start times.
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