Horns split weekend games with Vikes

By Lethbridge Herald on November 7, 2022.

University of Lethbridge Pronghorns Jeff Rodehutskors pushes off of a University of Victoria Vikes defender to try and create a basket on Saturday night at 1st Choice Savings Centre.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns basketball teams split their weekend games against the University of Victoria Vikes at home.

The men’s team won their opener on Friday night 98-94.

Both teams were tied at 43 heading into half before the Horns outscored the Vikes 55- 51 in the second half to preserve the win.

Kymani Pollard led the way with 29 points followed by Shae Gibb putting up 24 points on the board during the game.

It was the tale of two tapes on Saturday night as the Horns came out of the gate down 22-3 after the first quarter and had an uphill battle all night on route to an 88-60 loss.

“The night before you’re making 17 three (pointers), that’s not normal,” said head coach Jermaine Small, after Saturday’s loss.

“So you feel it, and you’re like,  ‘Did we shoot all our bullets last night?’ And I think we just didn’t come to play and they’re obviously mad after what happened last night and we got punched and didn’t recover.”

Small thought the team didn’t follow the game plan on Saturday.

“When you play a team back to back, you know you have to adjust,” said Small.

“And I thought they adjusted well and what we discussed and what we talked about (of)what we’re adjusting, we didn’t do it. We just deviated from the game plan. We thought what worked last night would work tonight. So I have to give them credit, but at the same time I think the energy was just low and we just didn’t come to play.”

Jeff Rodehutskors led the way with 14 points in the loss.

The women’s team opened with a thrilling 72-71 win over their Victoria counterparts on Friday.

The Horns had a 61-48 lead heading into the fourth quarter and only scored 11 points in the fourth quarter to the Vikes’ 23, and were able to hold on for the win.

Jessica Haenni led the way with 22 points followed by Haily Weaver’s 20 points.

Millay Johnson had eight assists in the win.

“The difference down the stretch was defence,” said Horns head coach Dave Waknuk.

“They obviously made a strong push offensively, but it essentially came down to a couple plays at the very end to be able to defend. We hit the shots we needed but we didn’t get every shot we needed, so wehad to be able to guard and I thought we did that as a team very well, especially when it mattered the most.”

The lady Horns lost 71-69 on Saturday.

Haenni had 24 points and Weaver had 19 points.

“Both were great games,” said Waknuk.

“Victoria’s obviously a great team and I thought we matched their level of intensity and compete. And out of one night, we got some breaks that went our way and the other night we didn’t. So it’s kind of the tale of basketball at the university level. It’s a game that allows small errors and that’s’ what really both nights came down to.”

Both teams will hit the road for the next two weekends at Trinity Western University and Brandon University.