If there's a loss that can provide a shot in the arm, the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns women's basketball team may have stumbled across it..

The Horns were topped 90-84 in Canada West play by the USPORTS seventh-ranked University of Saskatchewan Huskies Friday night at the 1st Choice Savings Centre to drop to 5-8 as the team continues to look for its first win of the second half.

The Huskies improve to 9-2 on the season, posting their seventh win in a row.

However, Pronghorns head coach Dave Waknuk felt Friday's setback could be a springboard to bigger and better things as the team ventures into the second half.

"While you always want to win games, obviously, I'm very proud of our effort," he said. "From start to finish, it was our best game of the season regardless of the result. I really liked our effort, energy and composure. They're a tough team. They made plays and I thought we made plays to match them, so I was really happy with that. Again, you want to get the win, but you also want to see progress at this time of year. You want to see you're getting better and you want to test yourself against the best and they're one of the best."

The Huskies held a 23-21 lead after the first quarter and nursed a slim 43-41 lead at the half.

The teams kept it tight heading into the third quarter with the Huskies outscoring the Horns 19-18 before the visitors sealed the win in the final quarter.

"It was a bitter taste in our mouths with the effort and performance last weekend against Mount Royal," said Waknuk of the 0-2 weekend in Calgary. "We all wanted a different result, but this is a good one to go forward on. We needed to have something to build our confidence because we played right with one of the best teams in Canada and we showed we can play on that platform when you're locked in and dialed in and I think we did that. But it was a confidence booster. There are still a few things to clean up. Against a good team, the story of the game is just cutting down on the mistakes, those small little things and small little errors that good teams capitalize on. I think we were right there with them. If we came down and had a missed shot or a turnover at the wrong time, they would come down and hit the big shot on the other end and that's what good teams do. But for us, we get a lot of confidence out of it to keep moving forward."

Jessica Haenni led the Pronghorns with 27 points and Haily Weaver added 25 points and nine rebounds. Haenni also had five assists.

Danielle Nadeau also hit double digits for Lethbridge with 12. 

Kyra Collier grabbed eight rebounds.

"Your best players have to be your best players and those two were tonight," said Waknuk of Haenni and Weaver. "I thought Jessica played with a bunch of composure and just showed why she's one of the best in the league. She was confident and did all of the things she does for us.

"Haily was good on both ends and I thought she gave us a really solid performance all around."

For the Huskies, Gage Grassick had 20 points, Tea Demong had 18, Logan Reider had 14 points and eight rebounds and Jordan Haggerty drained 12 points.

Kyla Shand had nine boards for the visitors.

The Pronghorns shot 41.1 per cent from the field, 42.9 per cent at the three-point line and 80 percent at the foul line.

The Huskies were 51.6 per cent from the field, 24 per cent on three-pointers and 64.3 per cent on foul shots.

The Horns look for the ultimate confidence boost a win over the Huskies would bring in the rematch Saturday at 5 p.m.

"For us it's going to be cleaning up some of those errors," said Waknuk. "I think that's what it's going to come down to. If we can take away some of those mistakes, I think we could have a different outcome. We have to go back and be the best version of ourselves coming into (Saturday's) game."