| (1) | Laval | 64 | ||||||
| (8) | Alberta | 49 | Alberta | 70 | ||||
| (4) | Victoria | 47 | Queen’s | 62 | Alberta | 85 | ||
| (5) | Queen’s | 51 | ||||||
| —–REGINA | ||||||||
| (2) | Regina | 93 | ||||||
| (7) | McMaster | 49 | Regina | 71 | Regina | 94 | ||
| (3) | Calgary | 74 | Calgary | 67 | ||||
| (6) | Dalhousie | 67 |
In the quarterfinals, held in Edmonton, the 2nd-seeded Regina Cougars pounded the 7th-seeded McMaster Marauders 93-49. The Cougars dominated the paint early, moving ahead 12-5 minutes into the affair and then exploding for a 19-0 run. They led 31-12 and by a phenomenal 57-19 at the half, out-rebounding McMaster 37-13 in the opening frame. Becky Poley led Regina with 21 points on 8-12 from the floor and 5-5 from the line. Corrin Wersta added 15, Cymone Bouchard 14, along with 7 assists, and Heather Dedman 11. Bree Burgess grabbed 15 boards. Wersta nabbed 8, as did Phoebe De Ciman. Guard Dani Everitt led McMaster with 17 points and 6 boards. Sarah Cameron added 10 points and 7 boards. Regina out-rebounded McMaster 61-29 and held the Marauders to .310 from the floor. “Not every game is as easy as this one, for sure,” said Regina assistant coach Diane Hilko. Head coach Christine Stapleton adroitly dissed the OUA. “It’s important to remember that this is a national championship. Not every region is certain to be as strong as other regions, but in a national event, it’s important that everyone be given a chance,” she told the Regina Leader Post. Stapleton also noted that her squad was sharp. “We finished well too, which was helpful because we gave time to a lot of our players. … This is a great start. I liked the challenge they gave us. We’re now into the next round and there may be some (favoured) teams that don’t get there. We’re just happy to be 1-and-0 at this tournament. … We were 11 deep 10 minutes in. Everybody was focused and relaxed. You could see it in their eyes playing defence, running the offence and crashing the offensive glass. Those were the fundamental things we talked about – and we looked after them.” Forward Heather Dedman said “we really came out focused. We were able to put them away in the first half and then ride that through the second half … (in which it) got a little chippy.” Cougar post Becky Poley added that “it wasn’t like we didn’t get our competitive juices flowing just because of the score. This was really good for us. Everyone got to play, but we still played hard. It wasn’t easy in any way. We ran our offence well and played really good defence. It may have looked bad from the final score, but it wasn’t easy.” The Marauders (coached by Theresa Burns, assisted by Kelly Dunham) also included Katie Coulson, Tara Johnson, Alana Shaw, Christin Dickenson, Taryn Stratten, Tami Asquith, Kristine Salmon, Angela MacLeod, Heather Gowan, Sarah Sinasac, Laurie Augustin and Susanne Burr.
The 3rd-seeded Calgary Dinosaurs defeated the 6th-seeded Dalhousie Tigers 74-67. The Tigers shot a blistering .560 in the first half to keep pace with the Dinos. But Calgary took command in the second half. With the score tied at 40, Leighann Doan erupted for eight unanswered points to break it open. A three-point play by guard Jessica Goldade gave Calgary a 10-point lead with 14:21 to play. Sarah Williams hit a trey to put the Dinnies ahead by 16 as Dalhousie tired. Guard Natalie Hudec hit a pair from the line to put Calgary ahead by 20 down the stretch. Canada West player of the year Leighann Doan led the Dinos with 28 points and 11 boards. She hit 12-17 from the floor and added three steals and two blocks. Anna Bekkering and Natalie Hudec each added 11, with Hudec hitting three from beyond the arc. Janice King led Dalhousie with 20 points on 8-14 from the floor. Angelia Crealock added 13 and Kerry Maier 10. Calgary coach Shawnee Harle was upset that her squad was held scoreless for the last five minutes of the affair. “The best part of this game is that we won,” she told the Calgary Herald. “It’s good we got this out of our system. We didn’t’ respond very well to that pressure and we lacked some poise and composure on offence.” Dalhousie coach Carolyn Savoy said “we ran out of gas. But we were right in the game with three minutes to go. They battled hard and the kids showed a lot of character (But) I wouldn’t say that it was our best game.” The Tigers (coached by Carolyn Savoy, assisted by Jim Charters) also included Jillian MacDonald, Julia Burden, Fausta Charlong, Erin Horne, Sonya Young, Logan Dunning, Hayley Porter, Kerry Maier, Autumn Mochinski, Katherine Fortier, Danielle Rumboldt and Elizabeth McNamara.
The 8th-seeded Alberta Pandas (who finished 10-12 in conference play but qualified as host) stunned top-seeded Laval 79-64. Laval had not lost since November 25th and had ripped off 19 straight wins. Alberta took a nine-point lead at the half. Isabelle Grenier hit a layup to cut the margin to six early in the second half but that was as close as the Rouge et Or ever got. Ten straight points by Diane Smith soon put the Pandas ahead by 20 and they romped. Smith scored 23, while Alberta posts Pam Hoyles and Erin Sandusky shut down the larger Rouge et Or frontline in the paint. Hoyles scored 12, Cathy Butlin 10 and Erin Sandusky 10. Isabelle Grenier scored 16 for Laval while center Josee Lalonde scored 14 and grabbed 10 boards. Alberta had 29 assists and 11 turnovers. “We worked hard to get ready for this,” Smith told the Edmonton Journal. “Personally, I did a lot of shooting because the ball wasn’t going in for me at the end of the regular season. …We made good decisions, played together, passed the ball, shot well and rebounded great. … We decided we were coming to come out to play and we came out.” Trix Baker said her troops “were ready. We knew we were a good team.” The Rouge et Or (coached by Linda Marquis, assisted by Monique Parent and Genevieve Laporte) also included Marie-Helene Pedneau, Isabelle Chaperon, Carolyne Cote, Julie Dionne, Elodie Gerard, Mireille Karangwa, Caroline Morel, Anne Mailly and Chantale Bellavance.
In the last quarterfinal, the 5th-seeded Queen’s Golden Gaels, making their first appearance in the nationals in 19 years at the tutelage of coach Dave Wilson, defeated the 4th-seeded Victoria Vikings 51-47. Jacqueline Beaudoin and Heather Box were deadly from the perimeter in the first half as Queen’s took a 24-23 lead at the half. They moved ahead by six before Lindsay Anderson two free throws with 7:03 to cap a Victoria rally as the Vikings took their first lead of the second half at 38-37. But Erin McDiarmid responded with a jumper as the Golden Gaels took the lead for good. Joanna Holdsworth hit a three with 24 seconds to go to rally Victoria within 47-49 but Jennifer Jackson iced it with a pair from the line with 3.3 seconds on the clock. “It’s an exciting win for us, especially in light of our players’ health,” Gaels coach Dave Wilson, referring to the flu-ridden state of several of his players, told the Kingston Whig-Standard. “[The players] are still struggling across the board [with the flu].” The Vikings (coached by Kathy Shields, assisted by Brian Chen) also included Lindsay Brooke, Kim Johnson, Angela Mangan, Lindsay McDonald, Emily King, Christy Solomon, Joanna Holdsworth, Krystal O’Byrne, Kimberley Lobb, Kelly Devlin and Jennifer Diana.
In the semi-finals, 2nd-seeded Regina outlasted 3rd-seeded Calgary 71-67 after the Cougars outscored the Dinnies 41-28 in the second half. Calgary was ahead by 11 at the half as Leighann Doan dominated the half with 17 points on 7-11 from the floor. But Regina countered with a 20-7 run to start the second half. The Cougars quickly cut the lead to three and then guard Bree Burgess nailed a trey to tie it at 44 with 14 minutes to play. After a Calgary turnover, Cougars post Phoebe de Ciman hit a jumper to give Regina a lead they never relinquished. Calgary did rally to knot the score at 58 but Becky Poley hit a bucket and then Cymone Bouchard took over. She followed a three-point play with another bucket, set up Wersta for a basket which made it 67-63 and then hit two free throws which put the Cougars ahead 69-64 with 22 seconds to play. Calgary guard Rena Carriere hit a trey to cut the lead to two but Cougar guard Crystal Heisler iced it with a pair from the line. Doan led Calgary with 25 points (17 in the first half) and 14 boards. Sarah Williams added 13. Cymone Bouchard led Regina with 20. Corrin Wersta added 16, including several aggressive offensive tips. Bree Burgess and Crystal Heisler each scored 10. “It’s hard. …emotional …everything, to lose like this,” said Doan. “I think we can play a little better than we did. But it isn’t right to take anything away from Regina. They beat us.” Calgary coach Shawnee Harle noted that the Cougars “didn’t anything special against Leighann. We kinda beat ourselves offensively. We played tentative and didn’t get the ball reversed, to create movement against the zone.” Guard Cymone Bouchard said the Cougars were determined to avenge a loss in the 2000 semis. “When we first got here, we said, `We’ve got to get revenge. It’s such a thrill to beat them and make it to the championship.” The loss “helped us a lot,” added Regina post and 2nd-team all-Canadian Corrin Wersta. “It motivated us that much more. … When we were sitting around the hotel, we told each other, `Remember the feeling we had last year when we left the gym. We don’t want to leave this game feeling that way.’ … All the girls were ecstatic as the seconds wound down and we knew we were going to win. There were even some tears in people’s eyes. We worked so hard and to finally get to this point is great.” The Cougars hit just 11-34 in the first half, including 1-9 from the arc, while struggling to contain Doan, who scored 17 as Calgary built a 39-30 lead. But they clamped down in the second half, going to a zone defence to slow down Doan. As the Dinos struggled to beat the zone, Regina climbed back into the game. Bouchard stepped up down the stretch. “Whenever I’m on the bench and I look up at the clock and see we need a basket, I always want to be in there,” she said. “I’m always glad to be in there in the last two minutes. I know I can have some impact on the outcome.” Regina coach Christine Stapleton said “the biggest thing with Cymone is she’s very fearless and she wants to be in those situations. Sometimes her shots go in and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes she makes good decisions and sometimes she doesn’t. But you roll with the punches with her. If you show confidence in her, she’ll keep that fearlessness. She wins a lot more games for us than she loses.” Bouchard also turned in the final defensive play for the Cougars last night. With Regina ahead 70-67 and the Dinos trying to get off a last-second shot to tie the game, Bouchard left her check and stole the ball from Doan as she drove toward the Cougars’ basket. Bouchard said of her freelancing steal that “when Calgary’s down, Doan is going to take the shots. We knew the ball wasn’t coming out of her hands. She was looking for the three-point play. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I saw the ball and went for it.”
The second semi was a fast-paced entertaining affair as the upstart Alberta Pandas stunned Queen’s 70-62. Alberta led 36-34 at the break and moved ahead by five early in the second half as Christi Allan set up Diane Smith for a layup. Alberta extended its lead to 50-43 but guard Heather Box hit a pair from the beyond the arc to rally Queen’s back to within one. The teams kept it close until rookie guard April Kanderka hit a layup and a free throw to give the Pandas a six-point edge with five minutes to play. Queen’s rallied back but Alberta took control for good when Cathy Butlin hit a 15-footer and fed a perfect pass to Amanda Smith in the corner for a jumper. Free throws by Diane Smith, Cathy Butlin and Amanda Smith iced it for Alberta down the stretch. Diane Smith popped a loose ball with 37 seconds to play and streaked for a layup and was fouled, hitting one free throw to put the game out of reach. Amanda Smith led Alberta with 18, including four free throws in the final minute of play. Christine Shewchuk added 11. Jacqueline Beaudoin led Queen’s with 24 points and seven boards. Heather Box added 18, including a trio from beyond the arc. Jennifer Jackson tossed in 12. “Right now, it feels …I don’t know – terrific,” coach Trix Baker told the Edmonton Journal. “It was been a battle for us to get this far.” Baker said Smith was exceptional, hitting tough shots and playing solid defence. Cristi Allan said the key was the Pandas “never say die” attitude. “It was a running game. When we stopped running, we’d stop scoring.” Queen’s coach Dave Wilson was impressed by the Pandas athleticism. “They did a very good job of moving the ball, playing the perimeter. They had an aggressive defence that did a good job taking us out of our rhythm. I like what they’d doing.”
In the bronze medal match, Calgary spanked Queen’s 82-60 as Leighann Doan scored 19, including 15 in the first half. Jennifer Goldade and Natalie Hudec each added 12. Heather Box paced the Golden Gaels with 18. Jacqueline Beaudoin added 16. The Golden Gaels (coached by Dave Wilson, assisted by Tim Orpin, Janet Sanderson and Sam Miller) also included Jennifer Jackson, Erin McDiarmid, Casey Pratt, Erin Cressman, Andrea Hanson, Amy Goodday, Karlyn Pennell, Gillian Thody, Jennifer Bittner, Melissa Mendicino and Alexa Holm.
In the final, Regina claimed its first CIAU title with a 94-85 win over eighth-seeded host Alberta before 2,300 rabid Pandas fans. Alberta took a 2-0 lead on a Diane Smith jumper and expanded it to 4-0 after the Cougars turned over the ball and Erin Sandusky hit a perimeter jumper. It was the largest and only lead Alberta had. Regina promptly ripped off an 11-0 run on stellar offensive rebounding and exploded to a 50-39 lead at the break. They extended the lead to 15 early in the second half and romped. Alberta was able to pull within six late in the game but was forced to foul to delay the game. But Heather Dedman his six consecutive free throws and Crystal Heisler and Cymone Bouchard each hit two from the line as Regina iced it. “I’m very proud of my team,” coach Christine Stapleton, who after the season rejected an offer from Simon Fraser, told the Regina Leader-Post. “Right after last year’s tournament, I started pushing the players to take responsibility for following the game plan.” Stapleton credited Alberta with taking the Cougars out of their game play. “We lost of lot of people (defensively) in transition. We were beaten in a lot of areas. We won because of our heart.” Alberta coach Trix Baker noted “we didn’t quit, even when we got behind. Regina is a tough team. They scored a lot of their points in the transition game. We kept thinking they might miss a shot or two but their performance was tremendous. They got points from everybody.” Wersta, Canada West’s player of the year two seasons ago, had eight points in the first half to lead Regina to a 39-30 edge at the break. “It feels just wonderful,” said fifth-year senior Dedman. “This is a dream come true. I’m obviously a little overcome with emotion right now. It’s just unbelievable.” When Alberta rallied back to within five in the second half, “we realized they were getting back into it and we just had to pick up our defence and start executing offensively,” Dedman added. “It was really loud – you couldn’t hear anything. But we love playing in front of huge crowds. We’ve been taking baby steps every year and finished just about every place but first and we’re really happy to do this.” Butlin said the first half deficit proved insurmountable. “We got down early and we were playing catch-up the whole time. We just couldn’t get over it. We pushed hard and I think if Regina would have made a couple key mistakes we might have been able to jump that hurdle. But they played well and didn’t make those mistakes.” Baker praised her Pandas effort. “It was gutsy. They never quit playing and they worked really hard and that’s all you can ask.” Heather Dedman said the Cougars benefited from previous tournament losses. “I don’t think any one of those years needed to be made up for. Every team was different. We learned something every time we were here. We took baby steps to get here. To finish it off like this is great.” Stapleton said “live and learn. Every single experience from the last three years has helped me develop as a coach and helped all of the players who were here before. We took what we learned from those years and put it together here this weekend.” The previous appearance taught the Cougars “to be very focused and unflappable” and to play more as a team. “We’ve been working toward this game since that loss (to the Calgary Dinos in a CIAU semifinal) last year. We made the kids more accountable and I worked a lot harder. I worked the same amount, but I did more in the way of preparation. Then the girls took responsibility for taking what we were teaching them and executing it in the game plan.” Bouchard said “we had incredible teamwork. We came prepared for every game and knocked them off one game at a time. We came into the final confident, knowing what we had to do. We all remember how crappy it felt to lose in the semifinal last year. It gave us that extra drive this year to be the best we could be.” Stapleton said that winning as a player (she won a pair at Laurentian) was different than as a coach. “The two as a player were different. When you’re playing, you just show up at the gym and do what the coach tells you. This is very meaningful because I’ve worked with this team from the ground up.” Rookie Jana Schweitzer said “I’m just lucky. I came on to a great team with great players, great people and great coaches. It’s unbelievable.” Heather Dedman paced Regina with 24 points on 5-8 from the floor, 11-13 from the line and six assists. Becky Poley notched 14 on 4-9 from the floor and 6-6 from the line. Corrin Wersta scored 12 on 4-5 from the floor, 4-7 from the line, 7 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals. Bree Burgess scored 11 on 3-6 from the floor. Cymone Bouchard scored 10 on 3-8 from the floor and 5 boards. Crystal Heisler scored 10 on 2-4 from the floor and 2 steals. Phoebe De Ciman scored 13 on 5-7 from the floor and 5 boards. Jana Schweitzer, Leah Anderson, Rumalia Werapitiya and Tara-Lee Crosson were scoreless. The Cougars hit 26-47 (.553) from the floor, 3-9 from the arc and 33-42 (.785) from the line, while garnering 40 boards, including 12 on the offensive glass, 18 fouls, 20 assists, 15 turnovers, 8 blocks and 8 steals. Cathy Butlin paced the Pandas with 30 points on 5-11 from the floor, 3-12 from the arc, 11-14 from the line, 4 boards, 3 assists and 2 blocks. Diane Smith scored 14 on 4-7 from the floor and 3 boards. Christine Shewchuk notched 12 on 5-9 from the floor, 7 boards and 3 assists. April Kanderka scored 12 on 4-5 from the floor and 4-7 from the line. Amanda Smith scored 6 on 3-7 from the floor. Erin Sandusky added 6, Lindsay Walsh 2, Pam Hoyles 2, Lynsay Hurd 1, Cristi Allan 0, Robyn Haig 0 and Kerrie Johnson 0. The Pandas shot 26-50 (.520) from the floor, 5-20 from the arc and 18-27 (.666) from the line, while garnering 36 boards, including 15 on the offensive glass, 28 fouls, 46 assists, 14 turnovers, 4 blocks and 6 steals. Amanda Smith noted that “no one expected us to make it this far. We just went out and played for ourselves. Now, we’re a little sad but when we look back tomorrow, we’ll see that we’ve accomplished so much.” Dian Smith noted that “we battled back but could never cover the gap.” Alberta coach Trix Baker said the Cougars have “come a long way. They’re a lot more patient offensively and they played great.”
The all-tourney team featured: MVP Cymone Bouchard (Regina); Leighann Doan (Calgary); Heather Dedman (Regina); Jacqueline Beaudoin (Queen’s); and Cathy Butlin (Alberta)
The bronze medalist Calgary Dinosaurs: Leighann Doan; Jennifer Goldade; Linnae Bee; Rena Carriere; Natalie Hudec; Sarah Williams; Jennifer Elford; Cory Bekkering; Anna Bekkering; Alison McGinn; Laura Fleming; Laura Jablonski; Duby Siu; coach Shawnee Harle; assistant Claire Mitton
The silver medalist Alberta Pandas: Pam Hoyles; Erin Sandusky; Cathy Butlin; Christi Allan; Amanda Smith; Lindsay Walsh; Diane Smith; Robyn Haig; April Kanderka; Lynsay Hurd; Christine Shewchuk; Kerrie Johnson; Charene Welsh; coach Trix Baker; assistant Susan Bradshaw; assistant Kristin Johns
The champion Regina Cougars: Bree Burgess; Becky Poley; Phoebe De Ciman; Cymone Bouchard; Heather Dedman; Corrin Wersta; Rumali Werspitiya; Jana Schweitzer; Leah Anderson; Crystal Heisler; Tara-Lee Crosson; Sheena Aiken; Tenille Kirkland; Kaila McKaig; Rhiannon Brown; coach Christine Stapleton; assistant Diane Hilko; assistant Dave Taylor; trainer Kate Sefan; trainer Erin Walton