Kodiaks open up second half with losses to SAIT

By Lethbridge Herald on January 12, 2023.

Herald photo by JUSTIN SEWARD Lethbridge College Kodiaks’ Madison Barfuss tries to drive to the hoop past Kaleigh Sellars of the SAIT Trojans during Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference action on Thursday night at Val Matteotti Gym.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge College Kodiaks women’s basketball team opened up their second half with a nail-biting 62-58 loss to the SAIT Trojans on Thursday night on home court at Val Matteotti Gym.

The girls were down 50-36 going into the fourth quarter and put in a valiant effort against the Trojans but the comeback just fell short.

“I hope that the girls see that if we play with that kind of intensity like we did in the fourth quarter, you know the whole game, then some good things can happen,” said Kodiaks head coach Ken McMurray.

“We’re not consistent right now and it’s early in the second part of the year, but we’re a little rusty and we turned it over a ton tonight. But that fourth quarter was great defensively and so I was happy about that.”

The Kodiaks turned the ball over 24 times.

“They scored 18 points off of our turnovers,” said McMurray.

“So that cost us. So (we’ve) got to do a better job of being sure with the ball and that’ll come.”

McMurray thought the team made some really good shots to bring them back and gave themselves a chance.

“It was just a little too late,” he said.

McMurray said there were moments of brilliance.

“When we pass the ball well, and we aren’t selfish ,and we’re thinking of our teammates and we’re making the extra pass, we’re very good,” said McMurray.

“We hit open shots — we hit A and B shots if you’re going to grade shots. When we don’t and we try to do it ourselves, then we’re very average. So that’s the difference and we’ve got  to get to the point where we’re playing a little better team basketball and moving the ball a little bit more.”

The girls will now have eight days off before hosting St. Mary’s University next Friday.

“Next week is a real important practice time for us,” said McMurray.

“We have St. Mary’s coming up, who (are) one of the best teams in the South and we’re going to have to play great basketball if we want to stay with them.”

Montana Berezay was the Player of the Game for the Kodiaks and thought the girls had a lot of defensive tenacity in the final quarter.

“I thought we really went at it in our press and playing help defence ,” she said.

“And I just thought we were really there for each other in the fourth.”

SAIT (8-3) took sole possession of second place with the win, while the Kodiaks are now in third with a 7-5 record.

Kitawna Sparks led the way for the Kodiaks with 13 points and the Courtney Deemter followed with 12 points.

LC’s men’s team loss 86-81  to SAIT in the second game on the evening.