PREVIEW: Bell AUS Women's Basketball Championships set to tip off

Capers, X-Women; REDS, Panthers to open AUS Women's Basketball Championship

HALIFAX, NS (Feb. 28, 2025) – And then there were six.

After an arduous regular season, the top six Atlantic University Sport (AUS) women’s basketball teams will gather at the 2025 Bell AUS Women’s Basketball Championship at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax this weekend to determine who will leave on Sunday as champs.

The Saint Mary’s University Huskies headline the attendees, as they have won the previous two AUS titles and ran through the regular season with a near flawless 18-2 record. Their first-place finish during the year gives them a bye to Saturday’s semifinal matchup at 1 p.m. where they will meet the winner of Friday’s quarter-final game between the fourth-seeded STFX X-Women and fifth-ranked Cape Breton Capers.

If SMU is able to get their hands on another banner, it would be the first time an AUS women’s basketball team has won three in a row since the Huskies won four straight from 2013-2016.

The Huskies are led by the 2024-25 AUS Women’s Basketball MVP, Clara Gascoigne. The jack of all trades from Dartmouth averaged 15.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.4 steals per outing this season. On top of that, she was just as tenacious on the defensive end of the court, winning her third consecutive AUS Women’s Basketball Defensive Player of the Year Award – becoming the first AUS women’s player to earn the distinction three times.

Gascoigne, who was also named an AUS First Team All-Star, joins former UPEI standout Jenna Mae Ellsworth (2019-20) and Memorial University players Jenine Brown (2002-03) and Katherine Quackenbush (2007-08) as the only AUS women’s hoopers to win both the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards in the same season.

The event’s other bye will go to the Acadia Axewomen, who lowered the curtain on their regular season with a 15-5 record. They enter the weekend as the hottest team in the league, winning their last seven games in a row.

Acadia also owns the title as the only AUS team to beat Saint Mary’s this season – sweeping their weekend set held on Feb. 14-15.

Fans of Axewomen basketball will remember their weekend trip to Halifax last year being cut short by Acadia’s surprising quarter-final loss to Memorial University on Day 1 of the event. This time around, head coach Len Harvey has decided to skip Friday altogether and will wait to see who will come out of the quarter-final battle between sixth-seeded UNB and third-ranked UPEI.

First Team All-Star Samantha Russell put together her best of four seasons with Acadia, averaging a career-high 18.6 points per game as well as hauling in 9.8 rebounds per contest.

While Saint Mary’s and Acadia will be in the stands watching on Friday, let’s take a look at who will be running up and down the court.

Quarter-final #1 – Friday, Feb. 28, 1 p.m.
No. 5 Cape Breton vs No. 4 STFX

To open this year’s event, the Cape Breton Capers will take on the STFX X-Women at 1 p.m. on Friday afternoon at the Scotiabank Centre.

The Capers return to the tournament after missing out last season. This year, their 10-10 record was good enough to place them in fifth spot at the end of the campaign.

CBU has stumbled down the stretch, going just 3-7 in their last 10 games after posting a 7-3 mark in their first 10. Still though, they defeated the X-Women in three of the four games they played against each other this season so they will be hoping for more of the same come Friday.

Without a doubt the biggest weapon CBU possesses is that of Kiyara Letlow. Named an AUS First Team All-Star for the fourth consecutive season, Letlow led the league in points per game (21.3) and rebounds per game (15.2).

The X-Women finished in fourth place with an 11-9 record – winning their last four games in a row. They are led by Second Team All-Star Ekaterina Karchevskaya, who averaged just over 12 points per game, and Kristine Cooper, who poured in 10.8 points and grabbed 6.1 rebounds per outing.

CBU’s last AUS title win came in 2016-17 season, while X last stood on top of the podium in the 1996-97 season.

All AUS playoff games can be watched on AUStv.ca

Quarter-final #2 – Friday, Feb. 28, 6:30 p.m.
No. 6 UNB vs No. 3 UPEI

Friday’s second AUS women’s basketball quarter-final pits the third-ranked UPEI Panthers against the sixth-seeded UNB REDS at 6:30 p.m. at the Scotiabank Centre.

By the time the regular season came to a close, the teams were headed in opposite directions. UPEI finished the year with a 14-6 record and winners of their final six games, while UNB ended with a 9-11 mark and losers of their final four outings.

The teams played each other twice this season with the Panthers taking the ‘W’ in both occurrences.

This will be the final run for Panthers guard Lauren Rainford – the last remaining player from UPEI’s championship run in the 2019-20 season. Despite being one of the oldest players on the court, Rainford showed no signs of slowing down this season, averaging 17.9 points a game to lead her team and finish fifth across the conference – earning her third AUS First Team All-Star selection.

UNB’s Katie Butts will be looked upon to do the heavy lifting for the REDS on Friday. In 20 games this season, Butts was a force to be reckoned with averaging a double double – 19.1 points and 12 rebounds per game.

It’s been a while since the REDS last hoisted an AUS banner, winning their last in the 1998-99 season, but they still hold the record for most ever by an AUS school – 28.

All AUS playoff games can be watched on AUStv.ca.