The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns are set to enter the final weekend of their regular season schedule as the hottest team in Canada West women’s basketball.
Currently on a streak of ten consecutive wins dating back to November, the Pronghorns’ season has been one to remember, despite not starting the way they might have liked. Dave Waknuk’s group kicked off their schedule with four straight losses, but the head coach said there was no panic from his team early on.
“I think we have a veteran group that just had to find our identity,” Waknuk said. “We’re a very different team than when we competed two years ago, and even though we had the COVID year, we were still sort of feeling it out.”
In November, the Horns figured it out.
Beginning with a sweep of the Mount Royal Cougars on the road, the team strung together four consecutive wins heading into their six-week winter break. Since returning in January, they have now extended that streak to ten games without a loss.
“Now it seems like we know who we are, and I think you can see that in how we play,” Waknuk said. “We’re gaining confidence, and gaining confidence in each player’s role.
“I think we have such a unique team, where everyone has a little bit of a different skillset, so finding the right combination of that has been key and it seems like we’ve found that so far.”
Leading the way for the veteran group is fourth-year guard Jessica Haenni, who paces the Pronghorns averaging more than 15 points per game.
“Jessica’s success is through the work she does — no one out-works her. I’ve known her, I’ve coached her since she was 15 on a Team Alberta team, and to see her game just grow and grow is a credit to who she is and how hard she works,” Waknuk says.
“The thing with her is she’s had huge fourth quarters for us. She’s hit big shots when we’ve needed it.”
Plenty of those big shots from Haenni came as the Pronghorns recorded their biggest wins of the season so far last weekend; beating the University of Calgary Dinos for the first time 2010.
Haenni totalled 41 points through the pair of games, as the ‘Horns swept the Dinos on their own court in Calgary.
“This has been the most composed I think we’ve been in a long time, and we were obviously really excited to beat the Dinos,” Haenni said. “We just focused on ourselves and we were confident in the last, tight minutes of the game.”
Haenni said she hopes the pair of wins over the Dinos prove to the Pronghorns that they can hang with anyone in the league.
“We’re all very competitive. In practice it can get heated sometimes, but that’s just helped us get to where we are right now, and everyone wants to do our best,” she said.
The Pronghorns’ (10-4) final two games of the regular season are against the last team they lost to — more than three months ago — the University of Alberta Pandas (10-2). Lethbridge has clinched second place in their division, but first place isn’t out of reach. To finish on top, the Horns would need to sweep the U of A this weekend.
Waknuk said it will be the toughest test to date and a good test to bookend what’s been a regular season to remember, but not enough to be satisfied.
“For us, it’s consistency in messaging. We said even when we were losing those games, we were just trying to improve and we know our best basketball has to come at the start of March, so that’s been our same message,” he said.
“We’re enjoying the outcome, but the process is the same: we have to keep trying to improve.”
Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. on Friday at the University of Lethbridge, followed by a 5 p.m. game on Saturday.
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