Cougars win Canada West Championship
author: nathan mccarville | sports writer
Third Canada West Championship title for the program/Arthur Images
Women’s basketball team enter USPORTS championship as 2nd seed
The University of Regina are now the Canada West Champions. The Cougars women’s basketball team has ended their playoff run on top, beating the University of Saskatchewan Huskies in the final game of the Canada West Playoffs.
The team comes away from Canada West’s playoffs, taking the Canada West Banner and Canada West title with them. This being the third time the team has been able to win a title in the history of the Cougars women’s basketball team, previously winning in 2004, and as recently as 2013.
The game, held on March 2, offered a spectacle to be regarded that made the crowd go wild with excitement. Beating the Huskies by 20 points, the Cougars brought the game to a close with a score of 75-55. In the first quarter, when the game came to a tie as one could have predicted given the evenly matched nature of the game and the teams on either side of the court, something unexpected happened. In the last four minutes, the Cougars were able to explode on the court, giving themselves a 12-point run without allowing the Huskies to score a single point, putting the score to 41-29 by the end of the first half of the game.
Going into the second half of the game with the lead, the Cougars took full advantage of the situation keeping ahead of the Huskies in the third quarter of the game, maintaining the lead, and the period ending with the Cougars 16 points ahead of the Huskies. The quarter featured another breakaway by the Cougars, who were able to score 7 points in a 16-second span during the game.
The final quarter of the game, with some security in the score, showcased the Cougars’ ability to defend their basket, the Huskies gaining only 9 points in the last quarter versus the Cougars’ 13 points.
The women aren’t finished with their season just yet. The University of Regina is set to host the USPORTS at the end of this week, beginning on March 8 with the championship set to end on March 11 at our very own Center for Kinesiology, Health and Sport gym.
The team, because of its season, finishes as the number two seed, and have secured a date with the Université Laval, the number seven seed.
Avery Pearce was able to share much of the same feelings about the game and the future of the team that will be determined in the coming week.
“We all felt pretty excited going into the game. We just wanted to win so badly; we felt confident! The highlight for me was definitely the last 10 seconds and then when the buzzer went, we all ran and hugged. I think that’s probably everyone’s favourite part. I felt amazing, and even more driven to go and win the national title!”
Getting into contact with Christina McCusker gave some insight into the general feelings of the team about the game and winning the Canada West title.
“Going into the game, I was so excited to get to play in front of a home crowd for such a big game. The experience was amazing and I had never felt that before.”
“We were amazed and so grateful for the crowd on Friday. It was awesome to get to play in front of a packed gym and they were really into it and it was awesome!”
“One of the biggest highlights was when Carolina [Gonclavas] got a steal and then got a basket and the crowd were really into it and it was so exciting. Then obviously the end of the game when I realized we had won and we’re finally going to get that banner.”
I was just so ecstatic to win and get that banner. I think it was even sweeter for a lot of us because two years in a row we felt how a loss felt and then to finally get a win and get to do it in front of an amazing home crowd was unbelievable.”
