SASKATOON, Sask. – Led by another stout defensive performance and efficient offence, the No. 2-seeded Saskatchewan Huskies cruised to a 96-58 victory against the Fraser Valley Cascades in the Canada West Quarterfinals Saturday night (Feb. 14) on the Ron & Jane Graham Centre Court.
 
The Cascades, who entered the evening coming off an impressive 78-60 win over the MRU Cougars in the play-in round, quickly found themselves trailing and, despite a strong second half, ultimately could not keep up with the top-ranked team in the nation.
 
Following a slow start in the opening minutes, Saskatchewan quickly took control after finding the advantage in their transition game, opening with an 8-0 run. From there the Huskies scoring depth took centre stage as the team built a 51-22 halftime lead and never looked back.
 
"It's nice to have everyone involved and get into a playoff game," said Saskatchewan head coach Lisa Thomaidis, who secured her 60th Canada West playoff victory. "We're a deep team and as we get further along we'll be shortening [the bench], but for tonight's it's good to have everyone out there."
 
The Huskies will now await the winner of the Calgary Dinos and Trinity Western Spartan's quarterfinal to determine their semifinal opponent, with the Dogs set to return to their home court next Saturday (Feb. 21).
 
Much of the Huskies' first half success at the offensive end came thanks to the undefeated Dogs finding their footing from beyond the arc, something that has not be a constant through the 2025-26 season. Maya Flindall, Gage Grassick, and Logan Reider all connected from deep as the team wen 6-for-12.
 
"We've been waiting for our three-point shooting to come back for a while," added Thomaidis. "I thought Gage [Grassick] kind of started us off and was hitting some threes like she was last year, which was fun to see. We're going to need that moving forward."
 
Saskatchewan also flexed their defensive prowess early on, holding Fraser Valley scoreless through five minutes and forcing the visitors into 14 first half turnovers while committing just five themselves.
 
Canada West's leading scorer, Julia Tuchscherer did all she could early on to keep her team in the fight, scoring nine of team-high 17 points prior to the break.
 
As Fraser Valley attempt to shut down the Dogs' perimeter shooting coming out of the break, the Huskies adjusted well and moved to lean on Ella Murphy Wiebe under the basket. Wiebe recorded eight points in the paint, which featured a pair of and-ones to pace the Dogs.
 
As Saskatchewan continued to plug away, the Cascades found some life offensively, shooting 50% from both the field and three-point line to score 19 points, their highest scoring quarter of the contest.
 
The fourth then saw veterans Maya Flindall and Andrea Dodig carry the Dogs to victory with 10 points collectively, with the pair complimented by 12 points from the bench.
 
Flindall would finish the game as the leading scorer with 22 points, followed by Grassick (14) —who added 6 rebounds, five assists and three steals—Murphy Wiebe (12), Dodig (11), and Reider (10).

"We faced a lot of adversity this year, and I was pretty happy with the team that they turned into. I think there's some satisfaction there, knowing that we improved quite a bit," noted UFV head coach Al Tuchscherer on his team's season.  

"There was a lot of growth in individuals and some of our veterans were able to step up and take more of a leadership role, which I thought was, fantastic. Overall, I think it was it was pretty good, and I think our game against Mount Royal yesterday was maybe our best game of the year, so that's a good time to have that and show the team that we've become."
 
Paced by Tuchscherer—who had a strong all-round game with six rebounds, four assists, and two blocks—Fania Taylor (11) and Bernie Leda (10) also hit the double-digit point mark for the Cascades who saw their season ended by Saskatchewan for the third consecutive season.

"I think all three of our grads have had impactful careers in different ways," coach Al Tuchscherer noted about his graduating players after the game. 

"Charlie [Arnold], just being the consummate teammate and doing whatever it takes for the team to be successful, and you don't have success without players like that. She was a big part of our success over the past four years."

"I just was really proud of [Esther Allison's] resilience this year, and kind of heartbroken for her at the same time. She's worked so hard to get to the point where she was really quite an elite player, and then she had that kind of snatched away from her… but she led us in scoring yesterday so that was pretty cool to see."

"And then Julia [Tuchscherer] might be the most consistent performer that we've had in our program over her five-year career… I'm just really proud of her, and the contribution that she's made to our program. And it's not always easy being my daughter, so we're just really proud of her for the stamp that she's left on the program."