Women's Basketball Huskies stay strong on the road in weekend split
It wasn’t the weekend split the Keyano Huskies Women’s Basketball team were expecting, but one they’ll be encouraged with regardless.
Their two weekend road games in Calgary saw the Huskies drop a 79-74 result against the Ambrose Lions before defeating the St. Mary’s University Lightning 61-59 featuring arguably their strongest fourth quarter this season.
“Any time you can go out of town and get a split it’s always a win-win situation, especially the way we lost on Friday being up 13-15 [points] and then just losing the lead,” Head Coach Dwanye Vigilance said. “It gave us that much more momentum for Saturday.
“I see it as a win-win situation, our team being young and learning that lesson early in the year I think is going to be beneficial for us.”
The standings being what they are, one might’ve expected the Huskies to defeat the 1-2 Lions before encountering difficulty against the 11th-ranked team in the entire country in the Lightning. The Huskies were also close to a weekend sweep with Friday’s performance against the Lions.
A 27-20 first-quarter lead turned into a six-point advantage at the half against the Lions. The Lions cut the deficit to two in the third quarter and then went ahead in the fourth.
Saturday, it was the Huskies’ chance to come back. Down five after one quarter and 11 at the half, they went shot for shot against the Lightning in the third quarter before a dominant 20-7 final frame that flipped the result into the Huskies’ favour.
“We definitely thought Ambrose was a winnable game for us,” Vigilance continued. “We proved that for three quarters, we just didn’t finish the fourth.
“We knew St. Mary’s would be a tougher battle, but we played St. Mary’s in the preseason, played pretty well against them so we were very confident we had a chance. We thought it would go the other way, but a split is a split. We’re 4-2 and still in the mix.”
Not only are the Huskies 4-2 on the season and battling among the top three in the division, but Saturday’s win marked their third road victory of the early season, already one more than last year’s 2-8 record away from home.
The fourth quarter in Saturday’s comeback was inspired by Maja Besic. The fifth year from Pancevo, Serbia recorded 10 of her 16 points in the final 10 minutes, while Jaylynn Twin added six of her 10 points in the closing quarter. Kaylynn Tucker also led the way with four of her eight rebounds in the game to help keep the Huskies in control.
“Her leadership over the last few weeks has been really tremendous in helping our team have success,” Vigilance said of Besic. “Down the stretch, it was mostly just execution between her and Tucker, who’s also playing well.
“Those two are the dynamic duo; it’s been very tough for people to hold down. Down the stretch, we said let’s go with our best two and see what they got out of it. They pulled it out.”
Vigilance also called Twin one of the team’s unsung heroes, as she recorded 30 points and 18 rebounds over the pair of games, which included a double-double in Saturday’s win.
Also heating up for the Huskies was Arian Batallones, who hit five three-point shots and finished with 17 points over the weekend in 40 total minutes of action.
The Huskies will now prepare for their final home games of the first semester, continuing their run of games against the South Division.
The Huskies will host the Lethbridge Polytechnic Kodiaks and SAIT Trojans from November 22-23 at the Syncrude Sport & Wellness Centre. Tip-off on both days is scheduled for 6:00pm.