Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON —  Facing a perennial national championship contender in the Saskatchewan Huskies, the odds were stacked heavily against the MacEwan Griffins — especially when you factor in the young squad was down several bodies due to injury and the Huskies can lean on their championship-calibre pedigree. 

But despite the lopsided 83-35 loss on Friday night at the David Atkinson Gym, the Griffins can walk away knowing they can draw plenty of positives in their battle with the Huskies.

"Coming into a game where you're playing one of the top-ranked teams in the country, you're going to be in for a battle, and one thing I'm really proud of is if you didn't look at the score and just watched them play, the margin wasn't what it was," said Griffins head coach Katherine Adams.

"I thought we competed, I thought we did some (positive) things. It wasn't pretty at times, we struggled to get the ball inside and get to the rim, but we also had some moments where we were really great."

Unity Obasuyi led MacEwan with 15 points and three rebounds, while Ava Regier chipped in with six points and one rebound in the loss as the Griffins fell to 0-15 this season.

Loagn Reider led the Huskies with 17 points and Gage Grassic recorded 11 points, seven rebounds and four steals as the No. 4 ranked Huskies improved to 13-2.

Missing the services of their starting front court due to injury (Samantha Hickey and Sarah Burnell), the Griffins were outmatched in the paint, and while they had a tough time on the glass, they competed hard and forced Saskatchewan into several uncharacteristic turnovers throughout the game.

They started the game defensively strong, not allowing the Huskies to score their first bucket until the five-minute mark in the opening quarter, but the Griffins also weren't able to get on a scoring run, either.

Saskatchewan eventually found their mark, and jumped out to a 16-0 run and finished the opening quarter up 22-2.

"We went in and thinking to just contain them, but to hold them to not scoring in the opening five minutes lifted our spirits and we had moments in the game where we felt we can really compete against a team like this," said Griffins forward Ava Regier.

Sofia Makinen drops the first points of the night for the @MacEwanGriffins. They trail @HuskieWBB 22-2 after one quarter. #GriffNation pic.twitter.com/XwyHYBjt5L

— MacEwan Griffins Women's Basketball Team (@Griffins_WBB) February 1, 2025

While they had moments where they gave Saskatchewan fits defensively, it was a tough night offensively for Griffins, who shot just 28 per cent from the field, and could only get to the foul line six times.

The Griffins scored just 11 points at the half, and trailed 62-17 after three quarters, but in the fourth quarter, they were only outscored 21-18.

This is the first game where we are starting to feel what we're capable of. In that last quarter we had 18 points, and they only had 22. We're trying to keep them under 18 per quarter, and we were a few baskets short of that, but it's been huge progress compared to the last few games," said Regier.

The Griffins know they're in tough this weekend, but they're trying to take any positives they can outside of the final score.

"Saskatchewan is averaging 82 points a game and they're only giving up 44. Their offensive efficiency is the highest in the conference and their defensive efficiency is one of the highest in the conference as well," said Adams.

"When you put those two things together, you know you're going to have to work and earn for every scoring opportunity you get. We had moments where we did some good things and moments where we made Saskatchewan look like the No.1 team in the conference.

"There is a lot we can build off of. When you're looking at wins outside of the score, there are definitely some we can walk away with today."

Unity Obasuyi led the Griffins with 15 points on Friday (Gerard Murray photo).

The Griffins will once again be up against it on Saturday in the rematch, but Regier said they need to build on the positives from this loss and continue to try to stack up more positives in the finale of their weekend series with Saskatchewan.

"Games like these, we have to have that nothing to lose mentality," said Regier.

"We're not in a playoff spot, and these are games where we can get experience and we need to build on these experiences, because going into future years, these games are for building chemistry for the future."

MacEwan and Saskatchewan tip off again on Saturday (3 p.m., David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV).