Horns in Calgary after dramatic win

Those in Twitter-land following University of Lethbridge Pronghorns basketball head coach Mike Hansen were privy to Pronghorn veteran Dejon Burdeaux’s buzzer-beating three-pointer that powered the Horns past the Mount Royal Cougars 96-93 in Canada West play Thursday night.

But for those who didn’t see the video of the game-winning shot that improves the Pronghorns to 5-0 on the season — or would prefer a first-hand account of someone who saw it unfold from the Lethbridge bench — we turn it over to Horns assistant coach Alex Fletcher to set up the dying-seconds drama.

“Mount Royal had the ball and their guy was getting ready to go one-on-one with about 10 seconds left,” he said. “Colton Gibb got a steal and threw it ahead to Zac Overwater, who was all by himself, but the pass was a bit too far. So Zac got it, saved it from going out of bounds, threw it back to DeJon. Dejon hit a pull-up three with two guys in his face with .1 left of the clock.”

Any win is a good win at the Canada West level, but Fletcher noted a Horns squad that had to gut out Thursday’s win.

“I think it just shows the mental toughness a lot of the guys on the team have. I’m sure every team is going through it, but we have guys with colds all week who are sick and we just found a way to battle through and pull it out at the end. It really helps when you have a guy like DeJon in his fifth year, just his leadership.

“Colton Gibb was also huge for us defensively, rebounding and just making plays down the stretch.”

Kyle Petersen also stepped up when Burdeaux was briefly relegated to the sidelines.

“DeJon went out for a bit with a little tweak to his knee,” said Fletcher. “I don’t think it’s anything too serious. But Kyle really helped carry the load while he was out. Overall, it was a great team win and you can tell by the stats, just really balanced.”

The rematch hits the hardwood tonight in Calgary and Fletcher anticipated another battle as his team looks to move to 6-0.

“They beat us last year at Mount Royal, so hopefully we can go back there for a little redemption. I think the two teams match up and have a lot of similar players, not very big on either team. So it’s kind of an old school and it’s going to be another one at Mount Royal. We obviously have to be ready to go, make a couple of adjustments and get after it again.”

The Pronghorns women also head to Calgary tonight with a 5-0 record following a 72-56 win Thursday night.

“The penalty kill did very well tonight. We had some long shifts where we got stuck out for long periods of time, which is really when Alicia came up big.

“I thought on the shorter shifts we did a good job to keep them on the perimeter and deny a lot of key opportunties for them.”

The Pronghorns power play broke the goose egg 2:09 into the second as Van Vaerenbergh put Lethbridge up 1-0. Kyra Greig made it 2-0 44 seconds later with her first goal in Canada West.

It stayed that way until the middle of the third when Alli Borrow scored her third of the season for a 3-0 lead.

Anderson’s shutout bid was denied when the Pandas scored with 50 seconds remaining in regulation.

Borrow added an assist and Mattie Apperson had two helpers for two-point nights.

“Our first period really set the tone, I thought it was our best period, it really staged the second and third,” said Janus. “We took advantage on the power play and we scored that second goal right away. I think it was the first or second shift after that power play to go up 2-0 and we scored first again in the third. It was a good effort. I’m not sure the shots really depict the game. I think they ended up with 43, but a lot of those shots were perimeter and it really wasn’t until the third when they were getting real quality chances and they were double shifting some lines.”

The Pronghorns will go for the sweep when the teams clash again this afternoon at 3 p.m. at Nicholas Sheran Arena.

“We have a lot of motivation with our alumni being here, so that’ll be huge,” said Janus. “I think, for us, we know they’re going to come out hungry. They’re a very good team and we take them seriously every time we play them. But it’s the little things every shift. Our defence had great gap tonight eliminating a lot of time and space in the neutral zone and especially in our defensive zone. We need to get to more pucks on net, too. So our focus will shift a little bit. We’re battling a couple of injuries, so our lineup will look slightly differently. But it’s that time of year, you’re getting into November and into the grind.”

In men’s action Friday night, the Pronghorns were downed 7-2 by the top-ranked Alberta Golden Bears in Edmonton.

Jay Merkley and Justin Valentino scored for the Horns in the second period in the loss that puts the Pronghorns at 1-7-1-0 on the season.

The teams play again today at 5 p.m. in Edmonton.