Melissa Tatti’s shot with 25 seconds remaining proved to be the winner as the second-ranked Brock Badgers defeated the seventh-ranked Calgary Dinos 72-71 in their women’s quarter-final game at the 2020 U SPORTS Final 8 Basketball Championships in Ottawa on Thursday.

With the win, Brock advances to play the UPEI Panthers (6) ‪on Saturday, March 7 at 1 p.m. in a women’s semi-final game. UPEI upset the Ryerson Rams (3) in their quarter-final Thursday. The other semi-final will be played between Laval (4) and Saskatchewan (1).

All four teams advancing to the semi-finals are guaranteed to play for a medal on Sunday, March 8, with the losers of the semi-final games playing in the bronze-medal game at noon and the winners playing in the championship game at 5 p.m.

In Thursday’s nail-biting quarter-final, Samantha Keltos led the Badgers with 24 points and was named Brock’s Nike Top Performer. Keltos, who was named U SPORTS Female Athlete of the Week Wednesday, chipped in five boards while teammate Jessica Morris netted 20 points.

Keltos called it a team victory.

“Jess and Tatti are both great shooters,” she said. “I went up to Tatti after the game and said ‘we shared this.’ She didn’t even know we were up after she hit that shot. Jess knocks down the shots when we need her to and I’ve never played with a better point guard than Tatti. I love them both.”

The Badgers led 39-35 at halftime.

Tatti, the OUA Player of the Year, scored 17 points with seven rebounds and five assists.
Brock shot 40.9 per cent from the field and 41.7 per cent from three, compared to the Calgary’s 37 per cent shooting and 34.3 percent from beyond the arc.

For Calgary, Liene Stalidzane had 18 points and eight rebounds in a losing cause.

The U SPORTS Championship is being broadcast live on ‪CBCSports.ca