VICTORIA - The no. 3 Saskatchewan Huskies clinched a berth in next weekend's Canada West Final Four after defeating the no. 5 UVic Vikes women's basketball team with a 59-50 Friday night at McKinnon Gym.
BOXSCORE
The Huskies won the best-of-three series 2-0, clinching the deciding game with another MVP-caliber performance from fifth-year forward Lindsay DeGroot. The Thelford, Ont. native scored 19 of her game-high 23 points in the second half, leading Saskatchewan to the come-from-behind victory.
The Vikes led by as many 15 points in the first half, but Saskatchewan countered early in the third quarter with a 10-0 run and their defence shut down the UVic attack. The Vikes were held to 13 points over the final two quarters, shooting just 13 percent from the field.
"I thought we battled hard tonight and you’ve got to give credit to Saskatchewan," said UVic head coach
Brian Cheng. " We can see why they’re ranked no. 3 in the country."
Kayla Dykstra accounted for nearly half the Vikes offence, scoring 23 points on 9-12 shooting. The fourth-year post from Calgary completed the double-double with 10 rebounds.
Carmen Lapthorne added 12 points, sinking four three-pointers.
Once again injuries played their toll on the Vikes bench with the reserves contributing limited minutes and no scoring. Saskatchewan, meanwhile, had a balanced attack to complement DeGroot with seven different players contributing.
The Huskies win is their sixth straight and advances them to the Canada West Final Four, which will be hosted by the no. 1 Simon Fraser Clan next weekend. Three berths to the CIS Championship are up for grabs.
For the Vikes it is an abrupt end to a season that saw them post their winningest regular season record since 1999-00. At 14-4, UVic finished second in the Pacific division for a second straight year and entered the post-season with a nine-game winning streak.