EDMONTON - The No.10 University of Alberta Golden Bears basketball team recorded an important victory Friday night at the Saville Community Sports Centre over the Lethbridge Pronghorns, winning 75-57. The victory keeps Alberta in third place in the Pioneer division at 13-6 and now winners of seven in a row, while the `Horns drop to 7-12.
The Bears were led offensively by senior guards, Kenneth Otieno and Joel Friesen. Otieno had a team-high 15 points while Friesen had 14, both recording a team-high seven rebounds while Friesen added a team-high five assists. Freshman guard Andriy Halushko added 12 points on 4-for-7 shooting from three-point range.
The Pronghorns were led by fourth-year guard Rob Olsen, who exploded for a game-high 23 points and added seven rebounds. Fourth-year centre Brent Watkins led Lethbridge in rebounds with eight and fourth-year forward Jared Baker had seven points, six rebounds, and a team-high six assists.
The Bears and Pronghorns were quite evenly matched early, as Alberta battled out to a 9-5 lead, before going on a 10-6 run led by threes from Friesen and Youssef Ouahrig to lead 19-11 before a Baker three trimmed it to 19-14 after one.
Alberta was up by eight several times in the second quarter but couldn`t get it any larger than that as Lethbridge hung with the Bears off of six points from Watkins, Alberta leading 34-26 at half.
In the third, however, the Pronghorns came out ice cold and the game quickly turned. Lethbridge had five turnovers before scoring a basket and Alberta opened the quarter on a 7-0 run to lead 41-26. The home team then went on a 10-5 run to increase the lead to 51-31. Alberta would finish the quarter ahead 59-37, outscoring Lethbridge 25-11; the `Horns had 10 turnovers in the quarter.
The visitors would continue to be resilient in the fourth, though, as Olsen had 11 points in the quarter and Lethbridge outscored the Bears 20-16 but still fell in defeat. Alberta out-rebounded Lethbridge 44-34 on the night, including 14-5 on the offensive glass.
The win keeps Alberta in third place in the Pioneer division, holding the tiebreaker over UBC, who is also 13-6. The Bears remain one win behind Victoria and Saskatchewan for first in the conference heading into the final night of the regular season. If they can remain third with a win on Saturday, the Bears would host a Canada West quarterfinal on February 27 - March 1 at the SCSC.
Alberta and Lethridge wrap up their regular season on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the Saville Community Sports Centre and it is Senior Night for the Bears graduating players. The careers of guards Taylor Riar, Kenneth Otieno, and Joel Friesen will be honoured in their final regular season home game.