Saskatchewan vs Laval
A breakdown of game one of the 2020 USPORTS women's national semi-final
The following is a breakdown of the National Semifinal between the Laval Rouge et Or and the Saskatchewan Huskies from the Women’s 2020 USPORTS Final 8 Basketball Championship Tournament. Unless otherwise stated, all offensive and defensive rankings use the “Game of Runs” calculations - which is ORtg/DRtg (points scored/allowed per 100 possessions) adjusted for conference averages.
Laval (12-4, RSEQ Champion) vs
Saskatchewan (18-2, Can West Champion)
Laval emerged out of the morass that is the RSEQ conference with the league’s best defense – though only 17th in the nation - and the weakest ranked offense to make the Final 8.
On the other side of the ledger, Saskatchewan was head and shoulders above the competition this season, with a ridiculous regular season NetRtg of 44.8 - a full 20 points better than the second-ranked team. In the aggregate, the Huskies had the nation’s best offense and defense.
But when you parsed out their schedule, their seemingly inevitable march to the title became a touch less preordained. Of their 20 regular season games, only six came against plus-500 teams. They went 4-2 in those matchups and 14-0 versus everyone else. They did have a 14.1 NetRtg in the six games against strong competition, the highest in all of USPORTS, just ahead of number-two Calgary. (For context, Calgary played 12 of their 20 games versus plus-500 teams).
They also did go 5-0 in out-of-conference USPORTS play versus a mix of good and bad teams. They blew out everyone except Ryerson, winning a tight 54-51 battle.
It was Sask’s defense that seemed less impenetrable vs strong competition, as their national defensive ranking, per GOR numbers, goes from 1st to 19th when you filter to only count games against plus-500 opponents. On the other side, Laval’s went from 17th to 4th….though that was only against one opponent (Bishop’s - the only other plus-500 team in the RSEQ last season), so take it with a giant grain of salt.
Any doubts about Saskatchewan were dismissed in their playoff run up to this point. They won close contests versus tough Can West competition and then the Huskies chewed (I know, I know, lame) through the Carleton Ravens in their quarter final matchup.
So Saskatchewan was good. But were they vulnerable?
Here’s a breakdown of the game.
1st Quarter
A monster defensive effort from Saskatchewan to start the game. Outside of a couple of threes from Laval on their 8th and 9th possession of the game – one off an offensive rebound scramble, the other just a run-up and chuck it attempt – Sask did not give up anything the entire period.
Laval’s go-to set to start the game was running a ton of action via the high-post, either off the pick and roll or hand-offs. This is normally a high-value proposition, especially when done off of their fifth-year big Khaleann Caron-Goudreau. Her size and screen quality makes any screening or DHO action tough to negotiate around.
The Huskies were ready for it. Their strategy was to bust through it over the top or underneath the screen, depending on the ball-handler, and having their big in drop coverage to contain the drive and protect the hoop. They were essentially trusting that their size advantage behind the main action would deter any drives to the hoop – and stifle any attempts that were actually made.
Their first quarter was an absolute clinic in execution of concept, multiple efforts, and sound positioning on the defensive end.
In the clip above, after the Huskies successfully contain the first action on the right side, forcing Laval into their secondary action, the Rouge et Or actually gain some traction with a downhill drive to the hoop. But fourth-year big Summer Masikewich’s insane recovery snuffs out the opportunity. I mean, just look at this:
On the other end of the court, the Huskies were clearly trying to get the ball inside, and had many good looks that were simply not falling. Credit to Laval though, they did hold the fort. It’s impressive to only be down single digits in spite of 17 out of 19 empty possessions on offense.
Before we move on, here’s a set I enjoyed from the first quarter from Sask:
Just a tough decision for the laval defense here. If either of the bigs cheats off of the screeners, it’s an easy slip to the cup. But that leaves the primary defender to chase around two solid screens and leave a quality shooter open for a good look. Ultimately that’s what they did – the lesser of two evils – and the shot missed. But this was a well-executed out-of-bounds set they ran a few times throughout the contest and another example of Saskatchewan’s well-thought-out team concepts.
2nd Quarter
After a disastrous offensive start to the contest, Laval appeared to rally back in the start of the second quarter.
The Laval bigs, anchored by national Defensive Player of the Year Caron-Goudreau, more than held their own against arguably the most talented bevy of bigs in the country, getting stops on the first seven defensive possessions. On the offensive side, they squeaked out a bucket on their second possession off a nice set they hadn’t run in the game up to that point. A steal at mid-court off a bad pass a couple plays later led to an uncontested layup and all of sudden they were right in it with some momentum.
But they couldn’t maintain. After a few harried possessions by both teams on both ends that didn’t result in any points, Sask righted the ship.
After the early blip to start the quarter, the Huskies buttoned things up again on defense. The following clip is a great example of what they had been doing for most of the game up to that point. Just a great sequence of communication, body movement, step throughs, as well as fundamental wing and post denials. The unit denies any sort of potential for quality ball penetration inside the arc and results in a rushed Laval three.
But it was the Huskies offense that finally started clicking into place. After not scoring on their first seven trips of the quarter, they scored on 10 of their next 11 trips, tallying 21 points in that time frame. The decent looks they had been getting all game suddenly started dropping. In the blink of an eye the score went from a 14-10 slugfest to 35-17 going into halftime, and all of a sudden the rout was on.
3rd Quarter
Laval was going to need to both get their offense going and find a way to shutdown the most potent offense in the country to have a shot at a comeback.
And it seemed like it could happen. After the teams traded hoops to start the quarter, the Rouge et Or hit back-to-back threes and combined that with a couple of stops to try and rally back.
Sask settled again, shutting the door for the five possessions following the threes and scoring consistently on the other end, pushing the lead back up to 20.
But Laval seemed to have found something offensively in the form of a stacked horns set that was giving them good penetration into the teeth of the Saskatchewan defense. A few Rouge et Or ran the set for the rest of the contest, but it was first-year guard Leslie Makosso that seemed to run it to greatest effect.
Going this route led to a few consecutive hoops, some knock down threes, and you could almost feel the “let’s get it to single-digits by the fourth” belief.
Unfortunately, it had taken them two-and-half quarters to find it and they were already behind the eight ball with time not on their side.
Sask got into the bonus early in the frame…and when that happens a comeback becomes that much more difficult. Laval committed 19 personal fouls in the game, and about half of them came in the third quarter. As a result, the momentum died and it became a half court affair again with parades to the free-throw line. While Laval’s offense was great, Sask managed to match it and as the third drew to a close the Rouge et Or had only managed to chip away two points from the half time deficit.
4th Quarter
Great teams close out games, and the 2019-20 Saskatchewan Huskies were a great team.
Back-to-back threes to start the frame, and it was curtains for Laval.
Within minutes, both teams began dipping into and ultimately emptying their benches and it became academic.
A fun subplot during this stretch was first-year Laval guard Zarah Wajih, who tallied 8 points in the frame. Valuable experience for a young player on a big stage. File that away for the coming seasons.
Laval put up a decent fight against a clearly superior Sask team that had a sound game plan. Laval would always have needed an unreal shooting game from outside. They tried, doubling their three-point attempts (30 to Sask’s 14), but only made three more (10 makes to Sask’s 7), with the last few dropping during garbage time.
So the Saskatchewan Huskies move on to the national final to play the winner of UPEI and Brock – the subject of our next post…