Tough loss for Horns
Two-point losses won’t get much harder to stomach than this one for the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s basketball team.
The Pronghorns were edged 79-77 by the Regina Cougars during Canada West action Friday night in Regina, suffering their first league loss of the season that puts them at 8-1.
But it was how the Horns lost the game that had head coach Mike Hansen cringing.
“(We) had 25 turnovers, including four in the last two minutes,” he said. “You can’t win basketball games when you don’t take care of the basketball. It was pretty disappointing. I thought our defence was solid and we got what we wanted when we actually played like a team. But this one falls on me as a coach because I’ve never seen our guys play this selfishly before and that’s something we obviously need to start emphasizing. For a team that leads the league in assists, to not share the ball. It was frustrating, we just gave one away.”
On the women’s side, the Pronghorns were also handed their first league loss of the season as the U SPORTS thirdranked Cougars posted a 97-76 win that puts Lethbridge at 81.
In the men’s game, the Cougars led 44-37 at the half. The teams tied the third quarter 18-18 before the Pronghorns outscored Regina 22-17 in the fourth quarter.
However, the Cougars were able to capitalize on some costly late turnovers to post the win that improves them to 6-1.
“That’s the disappointing part, we know we can beat these guys and we know we should have won,” said Hansen. “Now, the question is can we respond, come back and show some poise and some leadership and do a better job? I think we got frustrated early on and that led to some stupid mistakes and stupid fouls. We had guys in foul trouble all night, so our rotations were off. It was just one of those horrible games that you would like to get back.”
Dejon Burdeaux posted 34 points for the Horns, while Colton Gibb and Zac Overwater added 10 each.
In women’s game, the Pronghorns knew they’d have their hands full against the nationally third-ranked Cougars.
“They showed it,” said Pronghorns assistant coach Dave Waknuk. “That’s a tough team, they’re well-coached (and) they’ve got some standup players in key spots. They played us tough as we expected. They’re a team coming off a loss last week and were trying to get themselves back on track. I think they showed how tough they are offensively.”
The Cougars led 49-37 at the half and
The hosts grabbed firm control of the game with 14 consecutive points in threeminutes in the third for a lead that wasn’t threatened the rest of the way.
The Horns gave up 32 points off 27 turnovers.
“You can’t make as many mistakes against a good team,” said Waknuk. “That’s the difference right there. (We had) 34 points of uncontested layups off of turnovers is tough to bounce back from. The good news is that’s controllable and something we can fix. We have to take care of the basketball.”
As the teams get ready for the rematch tonight, Waknuk pointed to a few high points in his team’s tough test Friday.
“We scored 76 points, that’s good,” said Waknuk. “To give up 97, that’s way too many for us. I think we’ve been stressing defence and it’s something that got away. But for us to play and elite offence is a good step for us right now because it shows us the things we have to adjust.
“We just have to value the ball. This is a very aggressive team. They play tough on the
ball and I thought we did a better job adjusting to it. We made a lot of mistakes early and then sort of found a rhythm in the second, but by then the hole had been dug. So if we can come out confident and strong with the ball right off the bat we’ll be in better for Saturday, for sure.”
The women’s game goes at 5 p.m., local time with the men to follow at 7 p.m.
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