Horns men’s basketball ends first half with win

By Lethbridge Herald on December 5, 2022.

photo by Janise Michel/Lethbridge Sports University of Lethbridge Pronghorns’ guard Shae Gibb tries to drive into the paint past University Calgary Dinos guard Noah Wharton during Canada West action on Saturday at the 1st Choice Savings Centre.

By Dale Woodard

University of Lethbridge Athletics

The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s basketball team just picked up a little self-awareness.

They’ve also picked up a weekend sweep heading into the semester break following a 73-65 win over the Calgary Dinos in Canada West action Saturday night at the 1st Choice Savings Centre.

The win comes on the heels of an 83-76 decision over the Dinos Friday night and improves the Horns to 4-6 on the season, good for a tie for 11th in the Canada West with the Dinos, who are also 4-6.

“I think it’s something I’ve been searching for all semester,” said Pronghorns head coach Jermaine Small. “I think they have to know who they are. I think this weekend we played to our identity, which is defending, getting lots of loose ball and hustling and just outrunning people. If we can do that consistently and get six, seven, eight guys to contribute, I think that’s who we have to be. I thought we stuck to that this weekend and I think the results reveal that we stuck to our identity.”

On Saturday night, the Horns held a 36-35 lead at the half before pulling away in the second half to earn the sweep.

“I think this is very much a team, (when) we stay true to who we are, we’re very good,” said Small. “(But) we always have five or 10 minutes where we’re not very good. (Friday) night I felt we almost beat ourselves. With tonight’s efforts, we had so many different contributions. Kevin (Ibula) was really good and I thought finally our depth showed.

“We focused all week on running the ball and I thought that was the difference, we just outran them and had a few more horses.”

Pronghorns first-year guard Kymani Pollard led Lethbridge with 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Ibula added 13 points.

Jeff Rodehutskors had 12 points and four blocks for the Pronghorns and Avery Hutcheson chipped in with 11 points, seven rebounds and four steals.

Shae Gibb had 10 rebounds for Lethbridge.

The women’s team lost their second consecutive game 76-69 to the Dinos earlier on Saturday.