The Final 8 national tournament is here and the hosting UBC women’s basketball team will face the Saint Mary’s University Huskies in their quarterfinal game on Thursday, March 13 at 6 p.m. in the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
UBC earned silver in the Canada West (CW) championship, their first CW medal since 2015, while SMU won the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) championship for the third consecutive year. They match up quite evenly with the T-Birds — both teams were 18–2 in regular season and the Huskies are the fourth seed while UBC holds the fifth.
The T-Birds’ defence shined this season as they averaged only 53.6 points per game allowed and 16.1 steals per game. Their full press and intensity on defence also helped them capitalize on the other side of the court, averaging 79.9 points per game.
This season UBC’s offence was led by three CW all-stars: Mona Berlitz, Olivia Weekes and Keira Daly, who is the CW Rookie of the Year. The Thunderbirds have a deep bench and have shown this through multiple full team effort wins in their later season games.
The Huskies boast a similarly strong defensive presence, averaging 58.2 points per game allowed and an average 5.2 blocks per game. Like UBC, SMU uses their defence to fuel their offence, averaging 72 points per game.
Star fifth-year Clara Gascoigne, the AUS MVP and Defensive Player of the Year, leads SMU’s offence. She is supported by fifth-years Lucina Beaumont and Aki Kobayashi, both AUS all-stars. The Huskies are led by head coach Scott Munro — the AUS Coach of Year for the second consecutive year.
SMU placed fifth in last year’s Final 8 and has the experience of national tournament play over UBC, who last made it to the national stage 10 years ago. Facing an unfamiliar opponent will make this a challenging game for both sides but the T-Birds will have the advantage of being the host team. After the Thunderbirds loss in the CW finals where they struggled to make their shots, connecting on offence will be important.
This quarterfinals will likely come down to which team is able to control the boards — both average approximately 43 rebounds a game — as well as who is able to execute offensively.
Tickets to watch this — and all other — Final 8 games are available here.
This article is part of our 2025 Final 8 coverage. Follow us at @UbysseySports on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, as well as @theubyssey on TikTok, to follow our U Sports basketball coverage starting March 12.
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