Women’s Final 8
Farwell and Walker of TMU named U SPORTS basketball players of the week
The Carleton Ravens, who won the OUA conference title with a 70-57 win over then-No. 1 Queen's on Saturday, will be the top seed going into this week’s Protocase U SPORTS Women’s Final 8, presented by Bell. This is the Ravens’ second time as the No. 1 seed, with the last time coming in 2018, when they went on to win their only previous national championship. U SPORTS announced the seeding on Sunday for the 2023 women’s national basketball championship tournament, which runs from Thursday to Sunday at the Sullivan Fieldhouse on the campus of Cape Breton University in Sydney, N.S.
The complete field, in seeding order, is as follows:
- Carleton Ravens (OUA champions: 19-3 regular season, 3-0 playoffs)
- Alberta Pandas (CW champions: 15-5, 3-0)
- Queen’s Gaels (OUA finalists: 21-1, 2-1)
- Saint Mary’s Huskies (AUS champions: 15-5, 2-0)
- Calgary Dinos (CW finalists: 13-7, 2-1)
- UQAM Citadins (RSEQ champions: 9-7, 2-0)
- Acadia Axewomen (at large berth: 16-3, 1-1)
- Cape Breton Capers (hosts: 9-11, 0-1)
The Acadia Axewomen were awarded the at-large berth by the tournament seeding committee, which is made up of U SPORTS coaches. They won the AUS regular season pennant with a 16-3 record but were upset by Saint Mary’s in the league final.
Once the eight participating teams are established, teams are seeded with the requirement that conference playoff results be respected, conference champions be no lower than No. 6, and to avoid intraconference matchups in the first round.
All four quarterfinals will be played on Thursday, as follows (all times Atlantic):
- 11:30 a.m.: No. 6 UQAM vs. No. 3 Queen’s
- 2 p.m.: No. 7 Acadia vs. No. 2 Alberta
- 5:30 p.m.: No. 5 Calgary vs. No. 4 Saint Mary’s
- 8 p.m.: No. 1 Carleton at No. 8 Cape Breton
Consolation games will take place on Friday at 6 and 8 p.m., with the semifinals set for 3 and 6 p.m. Saturday. The championship concludes on Sunday with the fifth-place game at noon, with the bronze medal game following at 3 p.m. and the championship at 6 p.m.
All 11 games from the eight-team competition will be webcast live on CBC Sports digital platforms (English) and USPORTS.ca (French), up to and including Sunday’s gold medal game. The full webcast schedule will be available throughout the tournament at usports.ca/en/broadcast.