Bell AUS Women's Basketball Championship: Second-half surge sends Huskies to championship final

SMU keeps three-peat dream alive

HALIFAX, NS (March 1, 2025) – The two-time defending Atlantic University Sport (AUS) women's basketball champions proved why they are just that. 

The top-ranked Saint Mary's University Huskies exploded in the second half on their way to a dominant 89-58 win over the No. 5 seed Cape Breton University Capers in their 2025 Bell AUS Women's Basketball Championship semifinal game played Saturday afternoon at Halifax's Scotiabank Centre.

"Our first half wasn't our best basketball, but we were getting used to playing here and had some jitters and nerves," said Huskies star and league MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-Star, Clara Gascoigne, who finished the game with 24 points and eight assists. "But we came out in the second half and played really well as a team. We had some really good defensive stops and defense tends to turn into offense for us."

The win catapults the Huskies into Sunday's championship final where they will play the winner of Saturday night's other semifinal between the second-ranked Acadia Axewomen and No. 3 seed UPEI Panthers. Game time is scheduled for 1 p.m.

A third-straight AUS title would make them the first women's basketball program to win three consecutive AUS banners since, coincidentally, the Saint Mary's University Huskies rattled off four in a row from 2013-16.

Saint Mary's had one of the most prolific offenses in the conference this season but were held to just 11 points in the opening quarter. Things opened up a bit more in the second, but when the halftime buzzer sounded, the defending champs still trailed, 32-31.

CBU all-star Kiyara Letlow led the way for her Capers in the opening 20 minutes, scoring nine points and grabbing 11 rebounds. The AUS First Team All-Star finished the contest with 16 points and 15 rebounds.

When the third quarter started, it was all SMU.

A stifling defense that forced eight turnovers in the quarter and shots that seemed to never miss helped the Huskies to a 19-3 run to start the third. That was the beginning of the end for the Capers.

Down one to start the third. Up 14 by the end of it. That's the stuff of (two-time defending) champions.

Unfortunately for CBU, it was more of the same in the fourth quarter. The Capers could not buy a basket, shooting just 18 percent from the field in the final quarter, while SMU kept the pressure on.

In total, the Huskies outscored the Capers 58-26 after the break.

While Gascoigne was named the Subway Player of the Game, teammate Lucina Beaumont also had a strong outing, scoring 15 points and adding 10 rebounds.

CBU's Alicia Bowering added 16 points of her own in the loss.