Men's Basketball Huskies charge back to defeat Kodiaks; set up clash with Lightning in semis
It’s not often that the Keyano Huskies Men’s Basketball team are forced to play from behind, but they handled Thursday’s test aptly.
Trailing throughout the majority of the game and by a 15-point margin with less than two minutes left in the third quarter, the Huskies roared back to top the Lethbridge Polytechnic Kodiaks 87-84 in the opening round of the 2025 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Men’s Basketball Championship in Caronport, Sask.
“Lethbridge was well prepared, and they played really well,” Head Coach Jeremy Wielenga said. “We got down early and that made it very difficult. We just couldn’t get anything going early and we also weren’t getting stops.
“We definitely dug ourselves a big hole and that’s what created the situation we got ourselves in.”
The story officially starts from the opening tip-off, but for the Huskies it began during that third quarter when they started to wrestle the game back into their favour. After making just 10 shots from the field in the first half, including just one from beyond the arc, the Huskies outscored the Kodiaks 25-20 in the third quarter and then won the fourth quarter by 12 to earn the three-point victory.
“We have trust in our group and our guys,” Wielenga continued. “We’ve been through so many different situations, our goal was to literally get it from 14 to nine at the half.
“We got going early in the fourth, which turned the tide.”
Keenan Miller and Omeechi Williams each scored 10 points in the final quarter. In their comeback bid, Tafari Carefoote-Jones hit a massive three-point shot to cut the game to 71-70 in the Kodiaks' favour. After another defensive stop for the Huskies, Miller made a key jump shot and added the extra free throw to put the Huskies up two.
Thirty seconds later, the Huskies had stopped the Kodiaks again and Williams drained his second three-point shot of the game to make the Huskies’ lead five. The Kodiaks wouldn’t go quietly though, trailing by 11 with just over a minute to go and getting back in the game to trail by just a single point.
It wasn’t the winning point in the game, but two key free throws made by Williams, the 20th and 21st for the Huskies on the day, with roughly 10 seconds left forced the Kodiaks into three-point territory for their final shot, which ultimately didn’t connect.
The Huskies would finish the game 21-for-23 from the free throw line, shooting an incredible 91.3%.
“It’s always important in big games that you’ve got to knock down those opportunities from the free throw line,” Wielenga said. “We’re thankful that today we did.”
Miller guides the way with 31
A day after being named the ACAC North Division Player of the Year, Keenan Miller showed his work to the basketball community with 31 points, five rebounds, four assists, and one block.
“He’s had some big ones,” Wielenga said of his performance. “Once he got going, he was also creating and scoring. We went through him, and he was scoring and then Omeechi was going.
“We rode those two guys and then Nahshon and guys gave us big minutes off the bench with Yasser and other guys. Everybody had their own little turn, and it was a team effort to dig ourselves out and find a way back to be on top.”
Williams would finish second in scoring on the Huskies for the day with 19, two ahead of Nahshon Hurst’s 17-point performance. Yasser Abdullahi added eight points off the bench.
Huskies, Lightning set for sparks in championship semis
The matchups only continue to get bigger for the Huskies as they’ll matchup against the St. Mary’s University Lightning in Friday’s semi-finals.
The last iteration of the 2023-24 ACAC Men’s Basketball Championship game went the way of the Huskies by a 97-66 score in November 2024, though much time has passed for both sides since that meeting.
“It’s going to be a big-time matchup and it’ll be exciting,” Wielenga added.
Adding fuel to the fire is the availability of a spot at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Men’s Basketball National Championship to the winner with a wild card berth for the ACAC this year.
The Huskies and Lightning will tip-off at 5:00pm MT/6:00pm CT Friday in Caronport, Sask. The game will be available on ACACTV.ca.