UNews - Hannah Blanchette

Playoff basketball begins

trevor.kenney — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:17:50 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge men's and women's basketball teams are making long awaited appearances in the Canada West playoffs this weekend and action kicked off Thursday night in Regina.

The women's Horns team dropped a 71-58 decision to host ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Regina Cougars as the clubs opened their best-of-three playoff series. Lethbridge held a 30-29 lead at the half, but the Cougars took the lead for good early in the third quarter. Regina outscored the Pronghorns by a 19-10 margin in the third and put away the visitors with eight consecutive points over a three-minute span in the fourth quarter.

Sam Hornqvist led Lethbridge with 13 points and tied Hannah Blanchette for the team lead with five rebounds. Blanchette also had 10 points and five steals for the Pronghorns, while Kenzie Sheen chipped in with 11. It is the first playoff appearance for the Horns in eight seasons.

The victory gives the Cougars a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three conference quarter-final series, which will continue with Game 2 on Friday. If necessary, a third game will go on Saturday.

The Pronghorns men's basketball team is in the post-season for the first time in 10 years and they'll open their series tonight in Calgary against the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary Dinos. The teams split a pair of two-point games in the regular season with the Horns taking the last meeting on the final night of the regular season.

Check out this Horns preview for a look at the series.

Steacy, Patzer named athletes of the year

trevor.kenney — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:50:31 +0000

Jim Steacy and Ashley Patzer were named Male and Female Athletes of the Year respectively after outstanding seasons representing the Pronghorns.

Steacy won his fifth Male Athlete of the Year honour after winning gold medals in both weight throw and shotput at the CIS track championships.

Patzer led the women's rugby team to a second straight CIS title and was the MVP of the championship tournament. Other major award winners included Megan Bach (President's Award for the student athlete with the highest academic standing) and the men's track team (Team Academic Award).

The individual sport MVPs were: Men's Soccer – Ryan Conn; Women's Soccer – Jessica Dearlove; Men's Hockey – Scott Bowles; Women's Hockey – Charlette Hainer; Men's Basketball – Danhue Lawrence and Allen Kadima; Women's Basketball – Hannah Blanchette; Men's Swimming – Jeffrey Nicol; Women's Swimming – Kristy Gabruck; Men's Track – Jim Steacy; Women's Track – Heather Steacy; Women's Rugby – Ashley Patzer.

Steacy, Patzer named Athletes of Year

trevor.kenney — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:30:20 +0000

Pronghorn thrower Jim Steacy and women's rugby fullback Ashley Patzer were named Male and Female Athletes of the Year respectively at the annual Blue and Gold Pronghorn Athletics banquet Friday night.

Over 330 athletes, administrators and special guests were in attendance for the supper and awards ceremony where former Pronghorn basketball star, Danny Balderson, served as guest speaker.

Steacy, thought to be the most decorated track athlete in CIS history, won his fifth Athlete of the Year honour, one for every year in which he competed for the U of L. Coming back from a year off to compete in the Beijing Olympics, Steacy continued his dominance of the CIS scene.

For the fifth time, Steacy broke both the Canada West and CIS records in weight throw, winning gold at both championship meets. His furthest throw of 24.08 metres in the weight throw, the last of his CIS career, was five metres better than his nearest competitor. It also beat the NCAA gold medalist by more than two metres, becoming the only CIS track mark to outdo its American counterpart.

Patzer led the women's rugby team to its second CIS title, while being named the tournament most valuable player and an all-star.

The Horns captain, and former CIS player of the year, was a dominant force at the CIS Championships leading the tournament in scoring with 34 points. The Lethbridge native was also named Athlete of the Year in 2006-07.

Megan Bach of the women's hockey team received the President's Award, rewarding the student athlete with the highest academic standing at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. Bach achieved a perfect GPA of 4.00. The men's track and field team won the Team Academic Award, as they achieved a cumulative 3.13 GPA.

Following are team MVP honours as selected by their respective teammates.

Team MVP
Men's Soccer – Ryan Conn
Women's Soccer – Jessica Dearlove
Men's Hockey – Scott Bowles
Women's Hockey – Charlette Hainer
Men's Basketball – Danhue Lawrence and Allen Kadima
Women's Basketball – Hannah Blanchette
Men's Swimming – Jeffrey Nicol
Women's Swimming – Kristy Gabruck
Men's Track – Jim Steacy
Women's Track – Heather Steacy
Women's Rugby – Ashley Patzer

Hockey team back in win column

trevor.kenney — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:39:04 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns men's hockey team got the win they so desperately needed while the men's and women's basketball teams capped their Canada West schedules with weekend splits during a busy weekend of Pronghorn Athletics.

Men's Hockey

The Pronghorn men, in Edmonton for a two-game series with the CIS top-rated Alberta Golden Bears (19-3-2), rebounded from a 6-2 loss Friday night to post a 6-4 victory on Saturday. The win ended a seven-game losing skid for the Horns (13-11-0) and gave them some much-needed breathing room in the Canada West standings.

With two weekends to play in the regular season, U of L now has a six-point lead on both Regina and UBC for fourth in the conference (and home ice in the first round of playoffs). The Horns are now just three points back of Manitoba for third place.

Dustin Moore was the hero Saturday night, scoring three times and netting the game-winning goal. After the Horns let an early 4-0 lead slip away, Moore potted the winner late in the second period and added an insurance goal in the third. Backup netminder Brandon Highton got the win in net with 36 saves.

The Horns now close out the regular season with a pair of series at Nicholas Sheran Arena. This weekend the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary Dinos roll into town before the season concludes with a return visit by the Bears. Pronghorns need just one point over the next two weekends to clinch one of the six Canada West playoff spots as they sit seven points clear of last-place Calgary (and have clinched the tiebreaker with the Dinos) with four games to play.

Basketball

The Pronghorn women's basketball team (5-17) closed out a strong second half with a weekend split against ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan Huskies. The Horns picked up a 71-70 overtime victory Saturday night for their fourth win of the second half and third win over a ranked opponent since the Christmas break.

Hannah Blanchette hit a free throw with 1.5 seconds left in overtime for the winning margin as the Horns edged the nationally third-ranked Huskies.

The Horns men's team (5-17) looked poised for a weekend sweep but after beating the Huskies 87-67 Friday night and holding a five-point lead at the half on Saturday, they were shredded in the closing half, eventually losing 102-77 to cap a difficult season.

Senior guard Allen Kadima, playing in his final Canada West game, had 11 points and nine assists for the U of L. The nine helpers helped him set a new Horns single-season record for assists with 144.

Horns' streak ends with thud

trevor.kenney — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:48:36 +0000

A program-best winning streak that had stretched to eight games and spanned the Christmas break and the debut of a new year came to a crashing close this past weekend for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns men's hockey team.

The Horns were soundly swept by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan Huskies (5-0 and 6-1), falling five points back of the Huskies in the Canada West standings. The U of L (12-8-0) had crawled to within a point of the country's fourth-rated Huskies (14-5-1), all the while earning an eighth-place spot in the national rankings. The losses dropped the Horns into a third-place tie with ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Manitoba Bisons (each with 24 points) with just eight games to play in the regular season.

Pronghorns will get an opportunity to lick their wounds over the next week as they head into a bye weekend, not resuming Canada West play until Jan. 30-31 when they head to the west coast to face ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of British Columbia T-Birds.

Women's Hockey

The Pronghorns women's hockey team earned a home-ice split this past weekend, beating ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Regina Cougars 2-1 in overtime Friday night before falling 4-2 in Saturday's series finale at Nicholas Sheran Arena.

Dayna Janzen scored the game-winning goal with 26.1 seconds to play in overtime Friday night, handing the Horns (2-15-1) just their second victory of the season. The club is back in action this weekend when the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta Pandas come calling for games Friday and Saturday night at Nicholas Sheran.

Women's Basketball

For the second successive week, the Pronghorns women's basketball team beat a ranked opponent. The Horns dumped eighth-rated ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary Dinos 79-71 Saturday at the 1st Choice Savings Centre gym, giving the Horns (3-13) a split of their weekend series.

First-year player Courtney Heinricks had a season-best 15 points in the win, while third-year player Hannah Blanchette also netted 15 points and hauled in nine rebounds in the victory. Pronghorns lost 86-65 Friday night as the Dinos (7-9) halted what had been a six-game losing streak.

Men's Basketball

The Pronghorns men's basketball team was swept by ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary Dinos over the weekend, slipping to 4-12 on the season and falling three games back of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan for the final Canada West Central Division playoff berth.

Playing the country's third-ranked Dinos (14-2), Lethbridge dropped 100-82 and 88-75 decisions on Friday and Saturday night respectively.

Both the Pronghorns men's and women's teams are back at home this weekend when they host Trinity Western and Simon Fraser ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ on successive nights at the 1st Choice Savings Centre gym.

UNews - Hannah Blanchette

Playoff basketball begins

Related Topics

Steacy, Patzer named athletes of the year

Related Topics

Steacy, Patzer named Athletes of Year

Related Topics

Hockey team back in win column

Related Topics

Horns' streak ends with thud

Related Topics