Griffins use big second half to pull away from Pronghorns for weekend sweep

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – In a similar script to Friday, the MacEwan Griffins opened up a first quarter lead over the Lethbridge Pronghorns, only to see it melt away and turn into a loss.

On Saturday, the scoreline was 63-53 for the Pronghorns, who completed the weekend sweep to improve to 4-10, dropping MacEwan to 0-12.

"We had a strong start and defended well," said Griffins head coach Katherine Adams after they built an 18-12 first quarter lead. "We pushed the ball and capitalized on scoring opportunities. Turnovers were kind of our nemesis. The first half, they scored 29 points and 21 of them off our turnovers. That was a huge struggle to have that momentum shift."

Overall, the Griffins committed 33 turnovers in the game, although Lethbridge wasn't exactly sterling in that department either with 31.

Ultimately, MacEwan just couldn't turn their opportunities into enough points to hit the win column.

"We battled back and it was tight the whole way," said Adams, whose team was within six points midway through the fourth quarter but went four-and-a-half minutes without a bucket. "I would say there was stretch at the end of the third quarter where we got playing a little too fast and frantic. They increased their lead and we couldn't come back from that. 

"We chipped away and I thought we did a really good job staying calm and composed in the fourth quarter, but we just couldn't get scores down at the very end when we needed to."

The Griffins were hampered by top inside defender Samantha Hickey getting into foul trouble, forcing her to the bench for large swaths of the second half.

Unity Obasuyi led the Griffins with 17 points, while Toni Gordon recorded 11. 

Adams said the team had many solid contributors on Saturday.

"I thought Ayla (Grady) was very solid today, controlling pace and helping us with that shot choice, being intentional about our offensive attack. Sarah (Burnell0 came in and gave us some really solid energy off the bench. Paige (Massier) was solid and chipped in a couple buckets. 

"At the end of the game we always try to do a player of the game, someone that is a sparkplug for our performance and we had a tough time picking just one person today because there were a lot of people who gave us some really great moments."

The Griffins next return to Edmonton for home action vs. Calgary on Jan. 16-17.