BRANDON, Man. – A fast start and a strong finished paced the Lethbridge Pronghorns to an 84-67 win over the Brandon Bobcats Friday night.
Lethbridge started the game on a 10-0 run, but Brandon answered to get close to close the first quarter trailing 18-14.
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Bailey Johnson triple trimmed the Bobcats deficit to two points mid-way through the second, but Lethbridge answered with a 12-0 run to take control heading to the half-time break.
The Horns then held the Bobcats scoreless for over three minutes to start the fourth quarter, although the Bobcats showed fight down the stretch, outscoring Lethbridge in the final frame.
Despite the late surge by Brandon, the Pronghorns' hot start was too much to overcome.
"We had good energy coming out of warm-up which is something we focused on all week. We make sure that we come out strong," said Jessica Haenni of her team's performance.
"We just tried to focus on our defence and then our offence came out of that, so we went on a little bit of a run, got some energy and that kinda kept us going into the second half,"
Haenni led all scorers with 22 points to go with three assists and three steals. Kacie Bosch put up 15 points while Alexa Pobitzer contributed 12 points and Katie Keith finished just shy of a double-double with eight points and 12 rebounds.
Three Bobcats finished in double figures, led by
Laney Harder and rookie
Kelsey Starchuck who both put up 11 points.
Adrianna Proulx contributed 10 points.
The Bobcats scoring wasn't the issue according to fifth-year guard
Hailey Maas, but rather lapses on the defensive end.
"Honestly we just fell asleep on defence, like working on the things we know how to do – funneling screens, getting up in shooters faces and not doing the things that we're supposed to be doing to stop teams," said Maas.
The win improves Lethbridge's record to 2-1, while Brandon remains winless at 0-3.
The two teams meet again Saturday afternoon in Brandon. Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m. at the Brandon University Healthy Living Centre.
