| Laurentian | 47 | |||||||
| Guelph | 37 | Laurentian | 42 | |||||
| Dalhousie | 61 | Dalhousie | 55 | Dalhousie | 59 | |||
| Winnipeg | 59 | |||||||
| —–VICTORIA | ||||||||
| Calgary | 66 | |||||||
| Bishop’s | 65 | Calgary | 56 | Victoria | 64 | |||
| Victoria | 71 | Victoria | 78 | |||||
| Alberta | 48 |
In the quarterfinals, held in Halifax, host Dalhousie which finished (16-0) in regular season and was ranked third in the nation, but was making its first appearance in the tourney, defeated Winnipeg 61-59. The Tigers, led by All-Canadian 5-8 forward Carol Rosenthal, were hosting the tourney at their new $14-million Dalplex. The Wesmenettes were bigger but much slower and essentially had two plays, pounding the ball inside to 6-6 centre Debbie Steele and the perimeter shooting of Donna Posnick. The Tigers quickly got Steele, who’d hit her first four shots, in foul trouble, forcing coach Tom Kendall to yank her from the game. Dalhousie took advantage of her absence to build up a 34-20 lead. Steele was hit with her fourth foul early in the second half and sat on the bench until there was only four minutes left in the game. In her absence, Dalhousie built up a 23-point lead and appeared to lose interest before hanging on for the win. Dalhousie was paced by 5-11 centre Jill Tasker, who scored 21. Patti Langille added 13 and Carol Rosenthal 10. Donna Posnick led Wesmen with 23 while Steele finished with 15. “The officials just didn’t let Steele play and that’s our game,” Kendall said. “I don’t usually say anything about officials, but I was appalled at the officiating. It was easily the worst I’ve ever seen. You’d think it would be better, considering this is a national final.” Dalhousie coach Carolyn Savoy noted that “we got the ball inside and really went at Steele. We designed our offence to go inside and the team challenged her and that was the game. Steele didn’t really hurt us. It was their wings driving that gave us trouble. Jill (Tasker) had a great game. … We like to press and we have the bench to do it.”
Victoria finished (19-1) in regular season play and was ranked first in the nation. The Vikes whipped 7th ranked wildcard Alberta 71-48. CIAU player of year Carol Turney-Loos, who’d transferred to Victoria with her husband Billy Loos from St. Mary’s, keyed the victory with 19 points, including 9-10 from the field, and five assists. Hebb added 16, Sandy Lewis 12, Cindy Smith 8, Jane Boe 6, Tracy McAra 4, Sue Shaw 4 and Janine Prince 2 as Victoria dominated. Noreen Mitchell led Alberta with 12. Glynis Griffiths added 11, Janet Bosscha 8, Trix Kannekens 8, Annette Sanregets 6, Sarah Van Tighem 4 and Anne Faulk 1. The disciplined and patient Vikings raced to an early 26-8 lead and breezed. Alberta centre and second-team all-Canadian Trix Kannekens fouled out with only six points late in the game. “I’m not too concerned about our lack of intensity early in the second half,” said coach Kathy Shields. “It’s tough to play with intensity when you’re up by 22.”
The 8th-ranked Laurentian Voyageurs stomped the 4th-ranked Guelph Gryphons 47-37. Guelph had beaten the Vees three times during the regular season, by 11, 15 and 26 points in the postseason conference tournament final. Both teams were dreadful offensively. Guelph had trouble penetrating a zone as the Lady Voyageurs took an early lead, stretched it to 26-20 at the half and shut down the Gryphons early in the second frame, holding them a paltry four points in first eight minutes. Laurentian out-rebounded Guelph 37-21. Franca Ingribelli and Natalie Vukovich each scored 15 for Vees, while Donna Zirojevic scored 13. All-Canadian Candy Clarkson led Guelph with 16 but had 8 turnovers. “I’m not exactly sure what happened,” said Laurentian coach Peter Ennis. “We were able to contain Clarkson well and we played a good game.” Guelph coach Karen Lee said “we were awful. We all played our worst game of the season at the same time.”
In the last quarterfinal, 5th-ranked wildcard Calgary stunned 2nd-ranked (35-1) Bishop’s, coached by Wayne Hussey, 66-65. The teams traded the lead early before Calgary pulled away to 40-33 halftime bulge. All but shut down inside by the larger Dinnies, Bishop’s switched to the perimeter game and came up cold as Calgary used its fast break to move ahead by 15 with just under 10 minutes to go. The Gaiters rallied to within one down the stretch but fell just short of completing the comeback as the buzzer sounded. Janis Paskevich scored 20 and nabbed 10 boards while Donna Hanna hit 17 and pulled down 9 rebounds. The Dinnies out-rebounded the Gaiters 41-25. All-Canadian Debbie Huband scored 23 for Bishops’ but shot only 36%, while Sue Hyland hit 12 and fouled out. Dinos coach Donna Roman told the Calgary Herald that “If you’re going to have a good game, it may as well be in the first game of the tourney. We’re just totally beside ourselves this afternoon. I did very little subbing and Julie Hendrix started for Linda Rasmussen (broken hand) and planed an excellent 40 minutes. Janis Paskevich was named All-Canadian (2nd-team) last night and played like it. And Donna Hanna played the way Donna Hanna can play.” Hussey told Canadian Press that “we didn’t deserve to win” after being out-rebounded and outhustled. Bishop’s simply couldn’t resolve the Dinnies zone.
In the semis, Victoria defeated Calgary 78-56 as Luanne Hebb and Carol Turney-Loos dominated. Hebb scored 27 and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Turney-Loos scored 26, primarily on perimeter jumpers. Tracie McAra added 10, Sandy Lewis 7, Sue Shaw 4, Cindy Smith 2 and Donna Digby 2. Victoria led 38-28 at half and shot 33-66 (.500) from the field. Paskevich had 16 for Calgary as did Lori Chizick. Dori McPhail added 11, Julie Hendrix 7, Donna Hanna 2, Kathy Keenan 2 and Jennie Woods 2. The Dinosaurs hit 25-53 from the floor. “We didn’t try anything new,” said Victoria assistant coach Peter Domengoni. “We played them six times already – we sort of knew what to expect.” The Vikings outrebounded the Dinosaurs 39-22. A tough man-to-man defence and disciplined offence got into Calgary’s 2-1-1 zone almost at will. “Their zone is a very wide zone and we were able to move the ball around and work it inside. We were a little tight in the first half and weren’t really concentrating on defence. But in the second, we started concentrating a little harder.” Calgary had been the only team to defeat Victoria during the regular season, pulling out a 71-69 overtime win in February.
In the other semi, before 1200 rabid fans at the Dalplex, Dalhousie dispatched Laurentian 55-42. The Voyageurs outhustled Dalhousie as they raced to a 30-25 halftime lead. But with 2nd-team All-Canadian Anne Lindsay hitting everything in the second half and Vees finding themselves in foul trouble early, Dalhousie cruised in the second half. The Connecticut-born Lindsay scored 26 and raised the roof down the stretch with three big buckets in the last fourth minutes of play. “We just got into too much foul trouble early,” said Laurentian coach Peter Ennis. Lindsay hit 13-15 from the floor to lead the Tigers. “We challenged them and took the ball inside,” said Dalhousie coach Carolyn Savoy. “It’s the inside game that did it for us. On defence, we closed off the centre forcing them to shoot from the outside and they just weren’t hitting their shots.” Jill Tasker added 13, along with 8 boards, for Dalhousie, Carol Rosenthal 6, Buckle 4, Anna Pendergast 2 and Patti Langille 2. Debbie Davies led Laurentian with 13 while Natalie Vukovich scored 10.
In the bronze medal match, Calgary thrashed Laurentian 69-43 as Janis Paskevich scored 19 and Lori Chizik 18. The Dinos led 42-16 at the half. Natalie Vukovich paced the Lady Voyageurs with 14. Dinos coach Donna Roman told the Calgary Herald “it was great. All 10 people played and had a good game. Janis Paskevich was just outstanding. She was unstoppable against Laurentian and she was the centre of the tournament.”
In the final, before 5,000 fans at the Metro centre, the largest audience for a women’s game in Canadian history, Victoria survived a 64-59 scare from Dalhousie. The Tigers broke out to a 20-8 lead when Jill Tasker and Anna Pendergast dominated the boards. With four minutes to go in the first half, the lead was 15 but a late Victoria rally cut the margin to 35-27 at the half. “We played scared. We were timid,” largely because of the crowd, which rattled the troops, Vikings coach Kathy Shields told Canadian Press. To fire them up, Shields deliberately took a technical and that appeared to key a Vikings rally. “Dalhousie is an excellent team and everything had been going their way in the tournament. When we got down 15 points down it was a crucial moment. We stressed not panicking and just felt we had to stay close. Once we took that one-point lead we were in control. … Dal came out smoking and I was concerned that we didn’t get down by too much. As long as the game didn’t get out of hand, I thought we could come back in the second half.” Shields, a member of the U.B.C. national senior A champs in 1970 and key factor in Laurentian’s 1975-76 championship season, completed her second year at the helm by winning the crown. She’d taken over the reins from Mike Gallo. “We were really tight in the first half,” she said. “The girls wanted it so bad, they got rattled by the crowd and things were not dropping in form them right at the start. It was a new experience (playing catchup) and I think it was one of the biggest problems we had.” Indeed, the Tigers came out tight and all Canadians Anne Lindsay and Carol Rosenthall each picked up their fourth foul less than halfway through the second half. Victoria took a one-point lead on a three-point play by Luanne Hebb with 12 minutes to go. It was nip and tuck until the final minutes. Tigers recaptured the lead 55-54 with 3:43 to play. Tracie McAra hit a 10-foot jumper with two minutes to go to give Victoria a one-point lead. McAra later stole the ball at mid-court and set up another three-point play by Hebb with 55 seconds to go to pull Victoria ahead 62-59. A pair of free throws by Donna Digby with 29 seconds left sealed the victory for the Vikettes. “It was a real battle on the boards,” Hebb said. “They took us away from our defence in the first half but in the second, we gave them the outside shots and worked on clogging up the middle.” Hebb scored 19, including 15 in the second half. Sandy Lewis added 16 and floor general Carol Turney-Loos 14. McAra added 8, Donna Digby 4 and point guard Sue Shaw 3. Victoria shot 53% and committed 20 turnovers. “I’m really proud of my kids,” said Shields. “We were off that first half, but we really showed some poise in the late going.” Lindsay scored 19 for Dalhousie. Pendergast added 14, Tasker 12, point guard Patti Langille 6, Carol Rosenthall 4, Buckle 2 and Walker 2. Shields told the Dalhousie Gazette that “at the start, our problem was that Dalhousie was executing well, our defence was poor and we weren’t concentrating. Dalhousie came out smoking … I thought we were very tight-we wanted to win so badly. … When they settle down and play their game – patience and poise on offence and concentration on defence – they are unbeatable. I think our problem was that for three quarters of the game we played Dalhousie’s game. Once we got back into our own style of play things started going our way.” Tigers coach Carolyn Savoy said “the Dal Tigers gave 150% and you can’t ask for more than that. The Dalhousie fans were worth 10 points to us. I’d like to thank the fans for those points. I think that is what they were worth. Everyone did everything they could. Victoria are a very good ball club. They got rattled in the first half but came back. That’s a sign of a good basketball team. Everything went according to plan, we couldn’t have changed anything. Victoria came in ranked No. 1 and they really were.” Dalhousie out-rebounded Vic 26-20 and had only 7 turnovers. Victoria outshot Dalhousie .530. Dalhousie shot .850 from the line while Victoria shot .770. The Vikings finished (41-1) on the season.
The all-tourney team featured: MVP Carol Turney-Loos (Victoria); Jill Tasker (Dalhousie); Anna Pendergast (Dalhousie); Anne Lindsay (Dalhousie); Luanne Hebb (Victoria); and Janis Paskevich (Calgary)
The bronze medalist Calgary Dinosaurs: Janis Paskevich; Dori McPhail; Lori Chizik; Lindy Rasmussen; Donna Hanna; Julie Hendrix; Jane-Anne Kosten; Cathy Keenan; Judy Mayba; Cathy Chrusch; Jenny Woods; Dawn Sprung; coach Donna Rudakas
The silver medalist Dalhousie Tigers: Carol Rosenthal; Jill Tasker; Andrea Rushton; Anne Murray; Anna Pendergast; Anne Lindsay; Chris Buckle; Patti Langille; Elaine Walker; Darcella Upshaw; Pam Taylor; Karen Goodspeed; Wendie Toussaint; coach Carolyn Savoy
The champion University of Victoria Vikings: Carol Turney-Loos; Luanne Hebb; Sandy Lewis; Sue Shaw; Tracie McAra; Cindy Smith; Donna Digby; Jane Boe; Jamie Mackie; Janine Prince; Karen Packallen; coach Kathy Shields; assistant Peter Domengoni; manager Brenda Smith