SASKATOON — Looking to rebound from a tough semifinal loss the night previous, the Lethbridge Pronghorns fell behind early and weren't able to recover in a 90-62 loss to the Regina Cougars in the Canada West bronze medal game.
The Pronghorns found themselves down from the opening bucket, 31-13 at the end of the first and were never able to find their footing against the Cougars.
With the win the Cougars claim the Canada West bronze medal and keep their nationals bid alive with a chance at the at-large bid.
"I said from the beginning of the year until now, we're such a young team and so what we accomplished this year — I'm really proud of them," said Cougars head coach Dave Taylor.
It was a dominant performance from the Cougars, who got out to a quick 17-4 lead, and a 31-13 lead after the opening quarter — a deficit that proved to be too deep for the Pronghorns to dig with their way out of.
"Regina is an explosive team and when they get going and they play with a lot of momentum and energy, it just changes the whole thing and they came out really aggressive and give all credit to them and to their coaching staff they were ready to go," said Pronghorns head coach Dave Waknuk.
"It's tough when you dig a hole like that against a team that's so tough, that place so tough, it's hard to dig back out of."
It was Kaitlyn Tonita who led the way for Regina, as the fourth-year guard was lights out from deep and registered a team-high 22 points.
After a quiet six-point night in Friday's semifinal, Faith Reid got back to her old ways, registering 18 points — all on three-pointers. Meanwhile, Cara Misskey had 25 points on Friday night and was a factor once again on Saturday, with a 12-point, seven-assist performance.
"We just got so many people that can shoot it and we had a bunch of them going today," said Taylor.
Lethbridge responded with a better second quarter after the slow start, but the third-quarter was similar to the first, as Regina took an 80-43 lead into the fourth and from there, they rode it out to capture bronze.
The loss puts an end to Lethbridge's campaign after what was a tremendous season for the program who made it back to the Final Four for the second-time in three seasons after a lengthy absence from the conference's biggest stage.
"For our program, historically, this is a great year. It's one of our better finishes in a long time. We made a Final Four in 2019 and a Final Four now — it's going to become accepted," said Waknuk.
"Things are in the right direction. This is one we can be really proud of this program. And everybody in the room can be proud of who we've accomplished a lot and obviously came up short and you want to get more over the weekend. But I think that the journey that we were on and the way that we played, I think we could be very proud of this."
Jessica Haenni led the way for the Pronghorns, recording a team-high 22 points on 9-17 shooting in an encore performance after a strong semifinal against Saskatchewan.
"It's great to see. On a big stage your best players need to be your best players and she was and she showed why she's an all-star on this team and in this league and I think she played with a lot of confidence," said Waknuk.
I think just to see her improve her play and regardless of scores, situation, circumstance or matchup, she battled and and made stuff happen. So I think that's a really good sign for her and just shows a lot of growth on her part but shows how great a player she is."
The Cougars will now sit back and wait to see what happens in the country, as the OUA, RSEQ and AUS wrap up their postseasons next Saturday, with U SPORTS set to announce the eight-team national championship on Sunday.
