Horns grind out a sweep
The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns women’s basketball team knew a weekend sweep wasn’t going to come easy, but still delivered.
The Horns wrapped up a 2-0 home opening weekend Saturday night with an 87-82 win over the Brandon Bobcats
After an 84-58 win Friday night, Horns assistant coach Dave Waknuk stressed a repeat win over the Bobcats wouldn’t come easy.
The Bobcats made sure of that, nursing a 42-40 lead at halftime and a 65-63 lead after the third quarter before the Horns opened it up in the fourth quarter to pull away.
“We gritted this one out a little, but that was a good team win, for sure,” said Waknuk. “We said coming in that we knew they were going to be better and that’s a good team. They were playoff team last year and they play like a playoff team this year. We had to play really tough defensively because we were down two at the half and down two after three.”
But a 24-17 win in the fourth quarter earned the hosts the sweep.
“I thought that was a good quarter for us,” said Waknuk. “That’s the experience you need when you’re becoming a winning basketball team and those are possessions and moments that are tough to replicate in practice. It’s just so valuable when we get down. We know there are going to be other situations like that as we go this season. So to get this win, to grind one out and gut one out and do it with defence and rebounding was a huge one for us. To get off to a 2-0 start is exactly what we wanted and a big start for us.”
The guard duo of Kacie Bosch and Zoe Dahl led the Pronghorns with 15 points each. Bosch added seven rebounds and three assists. Katie Keith added 13 points to go along with six rebounds.
Amy Mazutinec and Isabel Rattai added 11 points each.
Mazutinec also had 10 rebounds.
That presence under the board made the difference.
“I thought our rebounding was a key,” said Waknuk. I thought we did a really good job of crashing. We outrebounded them 50-39 and we had 18 offensive rebounds and 12 defensive rebounds in the second half alone. Any time you’re getting second chance points and getting the ball in the paint is huge for us. I think our rebounding really came through.”
“I think we just found a really good rhythm out there. We controlled the tempo a lot more. I think at times they dictated it early, but we were able to find a pace and find some smart possessions on offence and control the tempo on defence. It was just a better team effort.”