EDMONTON – For the first-time since 2011, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men's basketball team is off to the national semifinal, as they defeated the Brock Badgers 77-73 in the U SPORTS Quarter-Final on Friday afternoon. 

The Huskies pulled off an upset for the ages, taking down the No. 1 seed Badgers — who entered nationals after 15-1 regular-season and undefeated playoffs en route to the OUA Championship.

"Unbelievable, I mean coming in, we were looked at as an underdog, but inside the team we knew that we had a good chance of winning this game. We just had to stick to our game. This was an up-and-down game, but this isn't nothing new. We've been here all playoffs — this was a great win," said Stephens.

After a legendary performance from Stephens in the Canada West bronze medal game, which punched the Huskies to the national semifinal, the Flint, Mich. product had more in the tank for this quarter-final clash.

The Canada West second-team all-star dropped five of his team-high 19 points in the final minute of play, including a game-winning layup with five seconds remaining, to lead the the Huskies to the upset. 

It was an incredible finish on the main court of the Saville Centre, with the game tied at 69 with a minute remaining. The teams would trade clutch buckets until Stephens drove to the hoop and made a tough layup amidst a double team in the paint to put the Huskies up one with five seconds remaining. 

"The coach called my look," said Stephens, who also hit a clutch shot in the Canada West bronze medal game to send Saskatchewan to the Final 8. " And the team believes a lot in me, which does a lot for my confidence. When I came off that screen, I saw an open lane and I took it." 

"I made some big shots that the team needed and we ended up getting the dub."

"Brock is a great team. We knew they were going to fight and make a run. We just had to keep doing what we were doing, and keep fighting. And we knew if we stayed in reaching distance in the fourth quarter, we would have a chance."

It was a phenomenal game from start to finish, with the Huskies defence able to hold the #1 scoring offence in the nation to just 73 points, a far cry from their 93.1 average. The teams finished close to each other in every major statistical category highlighting the competitiveness in the thriller.

The Huskies dominated the paint in the first half with guards Alexander Dewar and Stephens weaving their way through a Badger interior defence that had finished their OUA title campaign ranked 3^rd in opponent points-per-game.

Stephens finished with a half high of 14 points; going 6/11 from the field and adding four assists. Kascius Small-Martin was the halftime leading scorer for the OUA Champion Badgers, potting 13 of his own.

Next up for the Huskies, is a semifinal clash with a date in the national final on the line. The Huskies will play either the winner of the Dalhouse Tigers and Queen's Gaels tomorrow night. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 PM CST. All the action can be seen on cbcsports.ca and CBC Gem.