By David Kent. The University of the Fraser Valley Cascades women’s basketball team fell to the AUS Champion Saint Mary’s Huskies, 62-57, in the CIS “Final 8” quarterfinal at the University of Regina.
The Cascades playing in their first CIS “Final 8” quarterfinal battled early with the more experienced Saint Mary’s Huskies, matching SMU basket for basket early before the CIS “Player of the Year” Justine Colley, East Preston, NS hit two key baskets to give the Huskies a six point lead. UFV’s Kayli Sartori, Chilliwack and Sarah Wierks, Chilliwack, BC each scored six points in the first quarter to keep UFV close. The Cascades trailed by five points going into the second quarter. UFV shot an impressive 44 percent in the first quarter.
In the second, Saint Mary’s ran off six straight points to open a double digit lead which UFV quickly knocked down to five points, with some clutch shots by Sartori. The low scoring half has kept the Cascades in the game as they have held Colley to 10 first half points. UFV shot 33 percent for the half, while Saint Mary’s shot 32 percent. The two defenses have been the story in this CIS quarterfinal as UFV has committed 12 first half turnovers and SMU 10. Sartori leads all Cascades with 9 points, Sarah Wierks with 8 as only four UFV players are on the scoreboard. Colley’s 10 points are tops for SMU, Naomie Fequiere, Miami, Florida added 9 points for the Huskies.
The third quarter started with Saint Mary’s holding UFV to two points for the first five minutes of the half, while outscoring the Cascades 12-2 in that period. SMU kept pressuring UFV and double their lead in the quarter, going into the final frame, the Huskies led by 14 points. Saint Mary’s shot 45 percent in the third quarter as UFV hit for 38 percent from the floor. The final quarter started with UFV playing very strong defense holding the high powered Huskies without a point for close to three minutes. It looked like SMU was too strong for the Cascades as they never relinquished their double digit lead until midway through the final quarter as UFV went on a 13-0 run to narrow the Huskies lead to one point at 51-50. That is as close as UFV would come as SMU held UFV in check the final two minutes to advance to the CIS “Final 4” medal round. UFV will face McGill University Martlets in the second CIS consolation semi-final on Saturday at 2pm PST.
The Cascades were led by Sartori with 17 points. Sarah Wierks added 14 points and pulled down a team leading 11 boards to be named the “Cascades Player of the Game.” Courtney Bartel, Chilliwack, BC chipped in with 11 points, including 8 points during the 13 point fourth quarter run. Colley led SMU with 17 points and Fequiere added 14 points as she was named the “Huskies Player of the Game.”