The Keyano Huskies Women’s basketball team came out swinging to open their 2019-2020 season.
The Huskies earned a pair of victories over the weekend, topping the Augustana Vikings on Friday 67-49 – before winning again on Saturday in overtime by a score of 75-73.
Head Coach Dwayne Vigilance tells Mix News despite the wins, there’s always going to be room for improvement.
“I think we played okay, it’s always great to have two wins on the table. There’s a lot of things we need to do, but I’m very happy with the progress of our team so far.”
The Huskies are coming off a solid campaign last year, finishing with a record of 16-8.
However, they fell just short of provincial gold last season – falling on their home court in front of a packed house to the eventual champion Olds Broncos by a score of 54-51.
Lady Huskies react during last season’s loss to Olds. Photo by: Brandon Piper//Harvard Broadcasting
Vigilance notes while changes have been made coming into this season – he’s got a good feeling about this team’s potential.
“This is a whole different team. We play a little different, different expectations coming from this group. Not to take away from last year but I think this is a special team, but we still have a lot of work to do to put it together.”
The Huskies will battle Concordia this upcoming weekend – in Edmonton.
Husky Men Open Season With Split
The Keyano Huskies Men’s basketball squad also kicked off their 2019-2020 season over the weekend.
The Husky men fell in their first contest of the season – losing to the Augustana Vikings by a score of 97-87 on Friday night.
They followed that up with their first win – in a tight 72-71 victory on Saturday.
Head Coach Jeremy Wielenga tells Mix News they were able to clean up their game a bit to come out with Saturday’s win.
“We didn’t do some of the things we needed to do to get the win Friday. Hats off to them, they had a guy with 36 points, and we didn’t do a good job containing him but to battle back and get that win Saturday – was huge for us moving forward with our development.”
Last year, Keyano finished 17-7 in the regular season – but came up short at provincials, losing both games and getting eliminated from medal contention.
Wielenga notes with several offseason additions – there will be some adjusting as the season winds along.
“With so many new faces and just having guys come together, it’s going to take time to find our identity but I like the way we’re headed and we’re just going to get better as a group and once we that happens we’ll be comfortable with each other. It was nice to get the win Saturday, while we’re growing, learning and cleaning up our mistakes.”
The Huskies are on the road this week and will face Concordia on Friday.
