The best of Canadian University hoops all met up this past weekend, in Quebec City to play for the Bronze Baby trophy.
Université Laval, hosted the tournament at Amphithéâtre Desjardins, and came into the tournament in eighth place, automatically qualifying for the tournament, since they were the host school.
In the quarterfinal game on the first night, they managed to beat the number one seeded Toronto Metropolitan University Bold, who had just won the OUA finals and brought home the Critelli Cup for the first time 2022, and their third OUA win in history.
After Laval’s upset win they played the reigning USPORTS champions, the Saskatchewan Huskies, and lost that game 55-43 and went on to play for bronze the next day. They met up with the Calgary Dinos in the semi-finals, and fell short of medal contention, losing 66-59 and placing 4th in the tournament.
With the Bold defeated in their first game of the tournament, they then played the UBC Thunderbirds who had also just taken a loss to the fifth seeded Saskatchewan Huskies. After a 68-66 win against UBC on day two of the tournament, they played the Carleton Ravens.
It was the OUA finals match-up again, just six days later. Carleton got their revenge on the Bold, winning by two and clinching fifth place in the tournament. The Bold went back back to Toronto with a sixth place finish.
Calgary just clinched a medal with the win, coming in third place and bringing some bronze hardware back across the country. The Dinos fifth year guard Pollyanna Storie played only 12 minutes, and scored 13 points in her last ever USPORTS basketball game. This bronze medal win left the Dinos with two medals this USPORTS season, after an upset win against Saskatchewan, to bring them Canada West finals, where they beat UBC 63-57.
On the number seven seeded Carleton’s first day in Quebec City, they played the number two seeded University of New Brunswick, losing by 18 to begin the tournament. They then beat the odds, and won against the McGill Martlets and the TMU Bold. Securing these wins after a tough first loss allowed them to play in the fifth place game, where they won.
McGill went on to lose to Calgary as well, and ended their Final Eight run without a win.
UBC began the tournament by playing the reigning U SPORTS champions, the Saskatchewan Huskies. UBC, despite being seeded fourth compared to the Huskies fifth seed heading into the tournament, lost by 16, also coming off a Canada West semi-finals loss. The Thunderbirds also went winless in the tournament, and went home after just two games.
And the reigning champs, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, won the Bronze Baby trophy for a second consecutive year, against the University of New Brunswick Reds. With a 77-68 win, they sealed their fourth ever Final Eight win, and ended their season with only one loss.
The Canada West MVP, Gage Grassick, ended the game with 16 points and seven rebounds. She averaged 15.8 points this season, and has a total of 1264 points in her five seasons with the Huskies. With two Canada West MVP awards, two Final Eight wins, and three Canada West final wins, she ended her USPORTS career with quite the hardware collection.
