DAVID LARKINS, Wesmen Athletics
WINNIPEG — The Saskatchewan Huskies found a zone they liked -- and it belonged to the Winnipeg Wesmen.
The No. 7-ranked Huskies attacked the Wesmen 2-3 zone defence, produced 12 three-pointers and outscored the Wesmen 22-3 in the fourth quarter Friday in an 86-37 Canada West conference win at the Duckworth Centre.
The Huskies set the tone early with a 22-8 first quarter and led 42-21 at the half, sending the Wesmen to their sixth loss in seven games this season.
"I'm really proud of them how they attacked it," Huskies head coach Lisa Thomaidis said. "We talked a lot the last couple of days how we wanted to attack it and I thought they executed exactly what we asked them to do. It was nice that we were able to knock down some open shots. That's what Winnipeg forces you to do. If you can't knock down open 3s you're going to have a heck of a time, but I thought we were pretty unselfish, shared the ball, moved it pretty well."
Faith Hezekiah led the Wesmen with 10 points, her seventh straight game this season scoring double figures.
But the Wesmen shot just 14 of 61 from the field, a statistic head coach Tanya McKay knows has to improve.
"We've got to shoot better than 14 for 16," McKay said. "We were getting a lot of opportunities, we missed a lot of layups. I think (Saturday) we've just got to come with a little more determination, a little more fight and compete."
Meghan Ahlstrom had 19 points to lead four Saskatchewan players in double figures. Sabine Dukate, Summer Masikewich and Brianna Fehr each added 11 points for the Huskies, who won the rebounding battle 48-33.
Thomaidis was happy her team was able to get a quick start and it enabled her to play all 12 players with Saskatchewan's bench outscoring Winnipeg's 30-10.
"We needed to get back on track and gain some momentum and play lots of people, so I was happy with that effort," Thomaidis said. "It was nice to be able to play everyone and have them contribute and gain some experience against the zone that Winnipeg shows."