VANCOUVER – The No. 5-seed UBC Thunderbirds defeated the No. 4 Saint Mary's University Huskies 55-50 in the third quarter-final matchup of the 2025 U SPORTS Women's Basketball Championship at Thunderbird Arena on Thursday night.
"What a game," exclaimed UBC head coach Isabel Ormond. "We knew Saint Mary's has been in this game a lot. They've won this game a lot as a very veteran team, so you saw that back and forth and I'm really proud of our group for staying together and pulling through against a team that was ready and prepped and has been there before."
Mona Berlitz led the T-Birds with 14 points and 10 rebounds, Olivia Weekes tallied 12 points while adding a game high15 boards and Jessica Clarke chipped in with 13 points.
Clara Gascoigne had a game-high 15 points and five steals for Saint Mary's, Evie Hargraves put up nine points and nine assists, and Marlo Steenbakkers added seven points in the hard-fought loss.
Saint Mary's opened the scoring, but the 'Birds kept pace at 8-7 for the visitors before three-time Atlantic defensive player of the year Gascoigne knocked down a trey for a 14-9 SMU lead. Berlitz brought UBC back within a point at 14-13 but back-to-back Hargraves triples put the Huskies up 20-15 to finish the first quarter.
Jessica Clarke earned an and-one to knot up the score at 20-all in the early minutes of the second before a Sofia Bergman steal and Jade Huynh layup gave UBC their first lead of the game at 22-20. Chloe Wilson responded with a jumper for the Huskies, but Keira Daly sank a highly contested jump shot in the paint and followed it up with a three for a 27-25 lead. The hosts held SMU to just five points in the quarter, heading into the half with a 29-25 advantage.
Gascoigne got the third quarter rolling with consecutive two-point shots, but Clarke responded with a bucket in the paint to make it 32-28 UBC. Lucina Beaumont and Gascoigne added a layup each to take back the lead at 33-32. The Huskies and 'Birds continued trading points until a huge Clarke offensive rebound and buzzer beater ended the third at 40-38 in favour of UBC.
Sara Toneguzzi made a statement steal in the fourth and laid it onto Huynh for a fastbreak layup that got the crowd on their feet, pushing the gap to six points for the T-Birds at 46-40. After a Huskies timeout, Gascoigne drained a basket from behind the three point line to cut the lead in half, but Toneguzzi fired again with a three to stay up 49-43. Aliyah Fraser tried to keep SMU in the game with a triple before Berlitz put it to rest with a strong drive through the Huskies defense and layup for a five point cushion. The 'Birds stayed strong through the final minutes and the final buzzer sounded at 55-50 to advance the hosts to the U SPORTS semifinal vs the winner of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
"The nice part is you can really work on your scout, not building it, but fine tuning with the little pieces that you thought didn't go well in whatever game it was, because we played them both very recently," added Ormond when asked about facing familiar Canada West competition in the next round. "So that part is kind of nice, but the challenge is that they're doing the exact same thing."
The T-Birds will play next on Saturday, March 15 in the first of the Championship semifinals at 6pm in Thunderbird Arena.
