The Queen's Unviversity Gaels women's basketball team plays against the UQAM Citadins at the Cape Breton University in Sydney, NS. on Thursday, March 9 during the 2023 U Sports national championships. [Photo by Jayden R. Dill/The Charlatan

SYDNEY—The U Sports 2023 women’s basketball final 8 got off to a thrilling start. The quarterfinal round took place Thursday at Cape Breton University in Sydney N.S., with the Queen’s Gaels defeating Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) 75-72 in overtime.

The opening game was followed by another nail-biter matchup between the Acadia University Axewomen and the University of Alberta Pandas, where the Pandas completed the comeback to take a 61-57 win.

The Saint Mary’s (SMU) Huskies played the University of Calgary Dinos. It wouldn’t fit the theme of the day if the game didn’t come down to the last possession. The Huskies walked away with a 70-68 win.

The Carleton Ravens play the last match of the day when they take on the Cape Breton Capers at 7:00 p.m. EST.

Queen’s Gaels 75 – UQAM Citadins 72

Queen’s was slotted into the No. 3 seed coming into the tournament after losing to the Ravens last Saturday in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) final. 

On the flip side, UQAM won the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) championship and claimed the only RSEQ spot in the U Sports final 8. However, the team’s berth only granted them the No. 6 seed in the tournament.

The difference in seeding didn’t matter much. The teams were evenly matched the entire game. The Citadins’ twin sisters Fredlaine and Fredlyne Verrier were a problem the Gaels struggled to find an answer for.

At halftime, the sisters combined for 22 points—more than half of the Citadin’s total. The two forwards were a power duo like no other. With Fredlaine operating as the floor general, she often called the play the team would run for an offensive possession—something most teams would have their point guard do.

 

Fredlyne would dominate the paint, looking to create contact and grab rebounds under the net. When Fredlaine would crash the net with Fredlyne, the two six-footers were too powerful for the Gaels frontcourt.

Fredlaine finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Fredlyne had 19 points and nine rebounds to close the night. 

While the Citadins played relatively well in the afternoon, the game’s closeness was partially a result of the Gaels poor ability to take care of the ball. The Gaels recorded 22 turnovers, more than every game they played in the regular season.

But when it came down to what mattered most, the Gaels prevailed. The Citadins were set to inbound the ball with the game tied at 65 and 13 seconds left on the clock, just enough time to run a routine play. 

The Citadins did just that, but the Gaels allowed the play to run and used their foul-to-give once the Citadins inbounded the ball. This forced the Citadins to inbound the ball again, but this time Queen’s prevented the Citadins from getting a shot off, forcing the game into overtime.

 

Overtime brought only bad news for the Citadins. Both Verrier sisters fouled out and a lack of squad depth saw the team sub in its secondary rotation. 

After missing the opportunity to win the game in regulation, the Citadins found themselves down by three with seconds left on the clock. As they inbounded the ball, they failed to get a meaningful shot off once again and lost the game 75-72.

Alberta Pandas vs Acadia Axewomen || 61-57

In any tournament, it’s relatively surprising to have one or two upsets—an occurrence where the higher seed loses to the lower seed. A general rule is the higher the seed, the bigger an upset would be. 

That’s exactly the case when No. 2 seed Ablerta almost lost to the No. 7 seed Acadia, who made the final 8 by wildcard selection. 

While the Axewomen led at half 27-25, their largest sight at victory came at the end of the third when they led by 10 points.

 

It was not going well from Alberta. The team’s leading scorer, Emma Kary, who averaged 18.5 points per game this season, had one point the entire night. But up stepped guard Jenna Harpe who dropped 29 points and was awarded game MVP for the Pandas. 

It took a late fourth quarter run for the Pandas to complete the comeback. But the offensive effort from the Pandas takes back seat to their defensive performance. The team held Acadia scoreless for the final seven minutes of the game. 

With 7:17 in the fourth quarter, Acadia led 57-44. The game finished 61-57.

SMU Huskies vs Calgary Dinos || 70-68

Following suit, the SMU Huskies against the Calgary Dinos was another close matchup that came down to the game’s final seconds. 

 

At the end of the first three quarters, the teams were never separated by more than three points. The game’s biggest lead was six points, when Mackenzie Trpcic put the Dinos up 56-50 with 5:29 remaining and appeared likely to pull away and win the game.

 

But SMU battled back in quick fashion. Within minutes the game was tied. All of sudden the Dinos were the ones under pressure, trailing the Huskies in the game’s dying moments.

With 3:10 left on the clock, SMU led by two points. The team would exchange back and forth points, but the Huskies didn’t trail again. With every will of hope in her body, Pollyanna Storie made a three, but it only cut the Huskies lead to two with one second left on the clock.

While the Dinos immediately committed a foul to send Clara Gascoigne to the line, her second missed free throw created a rebound that drained all the remaining time on the clock and the Huskies won 70-68.

Featured image by Jayden R. Dill.

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