BOX SCORE ABBOTSFORD, B.C. - The University of Calgary Dinos ran out of gas in Game 3 of their best-of-three Canada West first-round series Sunday night, falling 69-60 to the Fraser Valley Cascades.

The loss eliminates the DInos from further playoff competition, while the Cascades advance to the quarter-final round, where they'll face Saskatchewan.

After Calgary cruised to a 67-48 win in Friday's opener and the Cascades responded with a 61-59 triumph on Saturday, the winner-take-all Game 3 crackled with the physical intensity of a bareknuckle boxing match. 

Michal Assaf, the Dinos' sophomore point guard from Israel, threw most of the haymakers for the visitors. She racked up a team-high 18 points to keep her squad in it, knocking down four of her seven attempts from beyond the arc. 

But the Cascades answered with a gritty team-wide defensive effort, limiting the Dinos to 32.8 per cent shooting while hitting 46.0 per cent of their own attempts from the field and winning the rebounding battle 46-33. The latter stat is particularly significant, given that Calgary owned the boards by a combined 107-74 margin over the first two games.

At the offensive end, Litman and Sartori led the way. Litman had perhaps her finest game as a Cascade, racking up 22 points on 9-of-18 shooting to go with 11 rebounds and four assists. Sartori stuffed the stat sheet as is her custom, registering 20 points, six assists, five rebounds, two blocks and two steals.

Richmond, B.C. high school products Bobbi Jo Colburn (R.A. McMath Secondary) and Anmol Mattu (Steveston-London Secondary) opened the game with three-pointers for the Dinos, but the Cascades answered with a Syd Williams triple and a midrange jumper from Litman. The two teams battled back and forth throughout the first quarter, which ended in a 18-18 stalemate.

Litman caught fire in the second, scoring 10 points in the frame, and the hosts led by as many as eight points and were up 35-30 at the break.

Williams sparked the Cascades late in the third, knocking down back-to-back treys to boost the lead to 47-39 heading to the fourth.

UFV continued to make it rain from beyond the arc in the final frame – Sartori and Victoria Jacobse connected from distance early on, sandwiching a tough layup from Assaf, to put the Cascades ahead 53-41. The Dinos responded with a 7-0 run capped by a Brianna Ghali triple, but Litman hit another midrange jumper and a tough layup in traffic, and Sara Simovic swished a dagger three-pointer from the left corner to push the lead back up to 60-48 with 1:05 left in regulation.

Sophomore forward Taylor Claggett had a big night for the Cascades with nine rebounds and eight points, Williams went 3-for-7 from beyond the arc en route to 11 points, and Simovic's modest stat line (five points, three rebounds, just two turnovers) only hinted at her composure running the offence.

Ghali had 10 points for the Dinos, and Lauren Seabrook posted eight points and eight boards.

Calgary head coach Damian Jennings noted that Litman's midrange success was a game-changer on Sunday – she'd hit just 33 per cent of her shots from the field in the first two games.

"I've been watching Shayna and Kayli for a while now, and I really enjoy the physicality and the way they go about it," Jennings said. "They're winners, right? In a three-game series . . . people are going to step up who are winners by nature. Huge amount of respect for them.

"I thought that we competed well in spots, similar to what we did on Friday. It's just that where we may have held their field goal percentage down Fraser Valley on Friday, we weren't able to do that."

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