LETHBRIDGE – Making their first appearance in the Canada West semi-final since 1995, the Lethbridge Pronghorn women's basketball team faces a tough challenge in their quest to compete for a conference championship traveling to Saskatoon to face top seeded and U SPORTS fourth ranked Saskatchewan Huskies.
 
The best-of-three semi-final starts Thursday night with game two going Friday night and game three, if necessary, being played on Saturday night. All three games start at 7:00 p.m. CST. Catch all the action on pay per view at www.canadawest.tv.
 
A look at the teams
 
The Pronghorns (12-8, 3-0) are undefeated in the post-season and earned their way to Saskatoon with a two-game sweep of the Alberta Pandas in Edmonton last weekend. The Pronghorns opened the series with a convincing 90-66 win and completed the sweep the next day edging the Pandas 67-60.
 
While the Huskies (16-4, 2-0) finished with the second best record in Canada West, they were seeded first after holding the highest RPI in the conference and enjoyed a first round bye. Last weekend at home, the Huskies swept the Winnipeg Wesmen to advance.
 
After surviving a scare in game one, rallying from a 15 point deficit to beat the Wesmen 84-75, the Huskies dismantled Winnipeg 102-56 in game two.
 
During the first weekend of the second semester of Canada West action, the Huskies swept the Pronghorns in convincing fashion, earning 93-59 and 76-57 wins.
 
Players to watch
Fresh off being named Canada West second star of the week, Asnate Fomina has been lethal in the playoffs, averaging 17.7 points per game, which ranks sixth in Canada West playoff scoring. She also leads conference in assists in the playoffs, averaging seven per game.
 
Fellow guard Kacie Bosch, who led the team in scoring during the regular season, sits second on the team with 15 points per game in three playoff contests. She is also averaging four rebounds and 3.7 assists per game.
 
Katie Keith had a monster performance in the series clinching game over the Pandas with 21 points and 15 rebounds. Keith sits third in playoff rebounding, averaging 13 rebounds per game.
 
The Huskies potent offence is led by fourth-year guard Sabine Dukate, who sits third in playoff scoring averaging 20.5 points in two playoff games.
 
Three other Huskies averaged double digits in the Huskies sweep of the Wesmen. Kelsey Lalor sits second with 14 points per game, while Summer Masikewich and Megan Ahlstrom sit at 10 and 11.5 points respectively.
 
Up Next
 
Winner of the best-of-three series will advance to a single game Canada West final with both finalists qualifying for the national tournament, hosted by Ryerson University. Should the Pronghorns win, the team would travel to face the winner of the Calgary Dinos-Regina Cougars series. If the Huskies move on they would host the Canada West final.