Horns strike first against Pandas, Bears

Call it a sweetheart of a start for the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns women’s basketball.

Opening their Canada West quarterfinal series against the Alberta Pandas Thursday night in Edmonton, the Pronghorns posted a decisive 90-66 win in Game 1 of the best-of-three series.

The win also allows the Horns to go for the sweep as Game 2 goes tonight at 6 p.m.

In Thursday’s Valentine’s Day affair, there were no broken hearts on the visitors side as Asnate Fomina led the Pronghorns with 22 points and seven assists and Kacie Bosch followed with 17 as Lethbridge outscored Alberta 2612 in the third quarter to grab control of the game heading into the final quarter.

Also hitting double digits for the Pronghorns were Danielle Fritzke (15), Amy Mazutinec (13) and Jessica Zarowny (10). Mazutinec also had five steals.

“We’re happy for sure, huge win,” said Pronghorns interim head coach Dave Waknuk.

“We got off to a pretty solid start and I thought we did our job defensively early and traded baskets with them for a bit. I felt we got some momentum going into the room at half time and then in the third quarter we talked so much about not letting up and pushing through and I think we did a great job of that.”

“I think we came out with great focus and changed things defensively with our intensity and our focus and that led to offence. I really think our offensive performance came from our defence of intensity.”

The Horns put up 21 assists in Thursday’s road win and, perhaps equally importantly, managed to take the home crowd out of the game.

“I really thought the game was about energy when you play a playoff game on the road I think it’s about trying to survive some of that early energy from the home crowd and then trying to capitalize on that and I thought we did a good job in the second half of coming out aggressively in the third quarter, controlling the energy and then controlling the game because of that,” said Waknuk.

Led by the guarding of Katie Keith, the Horns managed to hold Alberta’s Emma Kary to 13 points.

Keith also grabbed 11 rebounds and had four assists.

“We ask Katie Keith to guard the best players in Canada, she does that for us and she did it for us again,” said Waknuk. “I thought Katie did a great job individually, but I also thought we had a great effort as a team around her as a guard. I thought we defended really well that way. It was a good team effort, but with a talented player like that it was tough to keep her that quiet to 13 and we know she’ll be back tomorrow, so we have to try and focus on the same thing.”

Game 2 goes tonight at 6 p.m.

In the men’s game, the Pronghorns completed a sweep for Lethbridge, edging the Golden Bears 76-75 for a 1-0 series lead.

Zac Overwater led the Horns with 22 points, Colton Gibb added 14 and Chad Oviatt hit for 10.

Mike Pierzchala had 10 rebounds for Lethbridge and Kyle Peterson chipped in with five assists.

Game 2 of the men’s game it tonight at 8 p.m.

If necessary, Game 3 for the women will be played Saturday at 5 p.m.

The men’s third game, if necessary, is slated for 7 p.m. Saturday.

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