Eight Men’s and Women’s teams from Canada’s top university basketball programs compete for a U SPORTS national title each year. This year, both Queen’s Men’s and Women’s teams had a shot the banner.
Both teams had impressive OUA seasons, with the Women’s team achieving silver in the OUA championships after a 18-4 regular season record. The Men’s team had a 19-3 season record and were OUA Champions.
Women’s Basketball places fourth at U SPORTS Nationals
Game one of the U SPORTS Women’s Basketball Championships, taking place in Edmonton, Alberta, had the Gaels matched up against the Saint Mary’s University Huskies.
According to Head Coach Claire Meadows, the team had some nerves and started off slow, which is anticipated in your first game of a National Championship.
As the game went on, the team leaned a lot on their defence, which powered forward their offence.
The game ended with a score of 69-54, propelling the Gaels to the semi-finals.
The semi-finals saw the Gaels matched up against the Carleton Ravens for the fourth time this season. With two losses against the Ravens in regular season, the Gaels suffered a playoff loss against the Ravens in the OUA Championship one week earlier with a score of 63-55.
Last year, the Gaels lost in the U SPORTS Championship gold medal game by a score of 71-59.
Meadows shared that during the semi-final game, her team started out the way they needed to succeed, but it was the turnovers that were the demise for the Gaels.
“It’s hard against a team like Carleton, when you start to turn the ball over, they’re going to capitalize on that,” she said. “That allowed them to go on their run and just create a spread that was hard to come back from.”
Despite being disappointed by the loss, the Gaels were focused on turning it around for the bronze medal game against the Université Laval Rouge et Or.
“I thought we were in a good place mentally. I gave them some time after the Carleton game just to decompress and work through some of the emotions from that game. But going into the final day, I thought we had good energy,” Meadows said.
Meadows said her team put up a great effort, but in the end, just ran out of steam in their final game of the tournament. The Gaels lost to Laval by a score of 76-62, placing them fourth in the championship.
This year, Julia Chadwick, MIR ’24, Bridget Mulholland, Kin ’24, Emma Weltz, Nurs ’24, and Laura Donovan, Nurs ’24, all made waves as seniors on the team.
Meadows said the graduating players impacted the game beyond their performances on the court and impacted all of Queen’s Athletics and within the entire Kingston community.
“We talked a lot about the impact that they have had on the program and the other teammates that were in the change room with them,” she said. “That legacy is going to live on and carry on through generations to come.”
Men’s Basketball awarded silver at U SPORTS Nationals
The Queen’s Men’s Basketball team saw their closest score of the U SPORTS National Championship in game one against the University of Winnipeg Wesmen, finishing the game at 77-76.
In the OUA Championship game a week prior, Luke Syllas, ConEd ’24, received two technical fouls, which meant he had to sit out of the game against Winnipeg, forcing the Gaels to play without their star player.
READ MORE: Queen’s Men’s Basketball win OUA Championships
Though Head Coach Steph Barrie attributed the close game to Syllas’ absence, he said secondary players Simon Bailey, Sci ’26, David Ayon, Comp ’26, and Kai Dalen, ArtSci ’26, played critical roles that night.
In the semi-finals, the Gaels took on the familiar uOttawa Gee-Gees—a team they had played against twice in the regular season. Both regular season games saw the Gaels come out on top, but only by one point.
The Gaels held off the Gee-Gees and captured a semi-final win by a score of 84-97.
“We had great confidence going into that game, I think we had great confidence coming out of it,” Barrie said.
Though the Gaels hoped to bring home the first National title in Queen’s Men’s Basketball history, when they faced off against the Université Laval Rouge et Or, they fell to their opponent 77-71 and brought home silver medals instead.
“It was quite devastating,” Barrie said. “The weight of that always seems to outweigh how great the great moments feel. It almost felt like it was 10 times heavier than how it was enjoyable to win the Wilson Cup.”
Barrie said following the result of that game, he looked to himself first and what he could have done differently rather than place the result on the team. In the end, he believes the loss is something everyone will learn from.
“At the end of the day, I how much our guys hurt after that game,” he said. “It showed how much they cared about each other and what we were trying to accomplish, and that’s a really good thing.”
“It was very apparent that our guys were so fully engaged in this process, and this team, and the program, and the season that we had. The sadness they felt made me realize just how much those guys cared about everything.”
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