Kodiaks set sights on first

By Lethbridge Herald on February 14, 2024.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge College Kodiaks women’s basketball team end their regular season on home court this weekend and have plenty to play for.

The Kodiak women’s will host Concordia University of Edmonton on Friday before closing out with The King’s University on Saturday.

“Concordia and King’s are both very good teams,” said Ken McMurray, Kodiaks head coach. 

“They’re both quite deep and they play tough and the northern teams are really good at their half-court execution. And so for us, we’ve got to push the pace, so we (can) play some open court basketball  (and) some fast break basketball to battle their slower play a little bit because they’re really good in the half court.”

Hannah Helton is seeing the team focusing on defence, rebounding and boxing out heading into these games.

“We’ve  been going back to kind of just the fundamentals and the basics of how to box out, when to box out and also when to retrieve a rebound,” said Helton.

First place will be on the line for the Kodiaks as they’re tied with Red Deer in the top spot with identical 16-3 records.

“If we win both of these games and hope for a loss from Red Deer, then we’ll end up first,” said McMurray.

“So that first spot is pretty good (and) puts you in pretty good position because you get to play a fourth seed instead of a third seed. So that makes a little bit of a difference. So we’re shooting for first and just going to try to have a solid weekend and we’re excited that they’re both at home.”

McMurray said it’s a credit to these girls having a consistent season, when asked about battling for first place.

Helton says “that’s big” battling or first place.

“It puts a target on our back but it also doesn’t mean or guarantee anything,” said Helton.

“We  just kind of have to focus on what we can do and the teams we can play because it’s really anyone’s game and anyone can show up at any point.”