Blues Battle Chargers

#3 Capilano Blues vs. #6 Camosun Chargers – Thursday March 5, 5:30pm | WATCH HERE

The atmosphere will be a buzz on Thursday night when the host and sixth seeded Chargers open the PACWEST basketball championship against the third seeded Blues in a women’s quarterfinal.

The winner advances to the semis while the season will end for the loser on Thursday night.

They met four times during the regular season and finished 16 points apart in the standings.   The Blues swept the seasonal series with an average margin of victory of 11 points.  During the two games at PISE, which of course is the host site of this championship tournament, the Blues shot 38% while the Chargers responded with 36% shooting. 

Like it was during the regular season, the matchup in the paint is one of the most intriguing parts of this quarterfinal when the Conference’s leading scorer, Maddy Coffin tries to find easy hoops against Kanda Diop and Jayci Chase.  During the seasonal series Coffin averaged 16.7 points and Chase dropped in 11.

Coming into the playoffs the Blues (15-9) have stumbled as of late winning just once in their last five games. This week off will no doubt help them refocus and prepare for the Chargers.  On the offensive side, Coffin has led the way in scoring, but Barcha Hnizdilova and Mia Parkin play critical roles on this team giving the Blues several different options to find points.  As a team they shot 35% from the field and averaged over 59 points a game.

It has been on the defensive side where the Blues have been able to shut down teams and hold them to a Conference low 57.3 points a game.  They are forcing over 17 turnovers and have shown they are a quick swarming defence that can make life miserable for their opponents.

The Chargers (7-17) will need to find away around the defensive prowess of the Blues and score points.  They snapped their seven-game losing streak on the final day of the regular season with an eight-point lead, allowing them to relax a bit heading into the playoffs.  They have no doubt watched film on what other teams have done as of the late to the Blues to make them stumble. Overall, the Chargers averaged slightly more offensive production than the Blues, dropping just over 60 points and shooting 35% from the field.  They don’t have the threats offensively that the Blues have and don’t have a scorer who averages over 10 points a game; Diop leads the offence with 9.4 a game.

These two schools last met in the playoffs in 2019 in a semifinal that the Blues won by 20 points.  Sherrie Errico was the Blues player of the game with an eye-popping 31 points and was one assist away from a triple double.  Tessa Lannon-Paakspu led the Chargers that game with 22 points. 

The winner on Thursday night will advance to the semis and meet the #2 seeded Douglas Royals at 5:30pm on Friday.