Sports briefs: Huskies teams enter final weeks of regular seasons

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In their final home games of the 2023-24 season, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies basketball teams took on provincial rivals, the University of Regina Cougars.

Unfortunately for the women’s team, their undefeated season came to an end on Friday as the Cougars won 69-62.

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Saskatchewan, however, got revenge the following night in a dominant fashion, getting back in the win column with a 90-57 victory. Carly Ahlstrom led the U of S in scoring on both nights, picking up 16 and 18 points, respectively.

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The Huskies are now 17-1 on the season, but still maintain their No. 1 Canada West standing.

The men’s team posted back-to-back victories, coming from behind on Friday night to win 73-70 and picking up a 71-62 win on Saturday.

Emmanuel Bonsu led the Huskies with 18 points in the first game, while teammate Alexander Dewar turned in a game-high 21 points in the second game. With the wins, the Huskies improve to 9-8 and ninth place in the Canada West standings.

Both teams will be on the road for their final regular season games next weekend, taking on the University of Northern British Columbia.

The top 12 teams will compete in the Canada West final tournament, a single site, single elimination event from Feb. 21-25, with the men’s teams at the University of Manitoba and the women’s teams at the University of Fraser Valley.

HOCKEY

The host Mount Royal University Cougars scored the opening three goals of Friday’s men’s game against the Huskies and went on to win 3-2 despite goals from Saskatchewan’s Mark Rumsey in the second period and Chantz Petruic in the third. Jordan Kooy stopped 23 of 26 shots while in net for the Dogs.

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The following night, Saskatchewan’s Landon Koisor, Liam Keeler and Shane Collins each scored on the power play and teammate Keaton Sorenson added a short-handed goal, while Kooy made 22 saves on 25 shots to give the Huskies the 4-3 victory.

Saskatchewan is currently 17-7-0 and fifth in Canada West, but those standings could change in the next couple of days as the team heads to Langley, B.C., for makeup games against the Trinity Western University Spartans on Feb. 5 and 6.

The team will then wrap up the regular season next weekend in Saskatoon against the Manitoba Bisons.

Taking on MRU at home this weekend, the women’s team posted back-to-back losses.

On Friday, Kelsey Hall had the lone score for the Huskies and Camryn Drever made 20 saves on 24 shots as the Cougars won 4-1.

The next evening, the two teams were at a stalemate until the Cougars scored 5:26 into the third period and added an empty netter to take the 2-0 shutout victory. Drever made 23 saves on 24 shots in that game.

Saskatchewan is currently fourth in Canada West with a 17-8-0-1 record and will end the regular season in Manitoba next weekend.

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The top six teams in the men’s and women’s standings will make playoffs.

VOLLEYBALL

Saskatchewan’s men’s team topped the host University of Calgary Dinos in both of their games on the weekend, winning 3-0 (25-22, 27-25 and 26-24) on Friday as well as a back-and-forth 3-2 (21-25, 25-20, 25-20, 19-25 and 19-17) victory on Saturday.

Isaiah Mamer picked up a team-high 17 kills in Friday’s game, while Emmett Graham led the Dogs with 23 kills on Saturday.

With two weekends left in the regular season, the Huskies are fourth in Canada West with a 14-6 record.

On the women’s side, Saskatchewan fell 0-3 (21-25, 24-26 and 22-25) on Friday in Calgary with Tielle Hagel earning nine kills, however they picked up a 3-2 (27-29, 25-23, 25-21, 21-25 and 15-11) victory the next night, with Olivia Mattern picking up 10 kills.

Saskatchewan holds an 8-12 record for eighth place and will have to maintain that standing through their final weekends as only the top eight teams qualify for playoffs.

TRACK & FIELD

Masson Altrogge and Alexander Webster were the lone Huskies to claim gold at the Jim Daly Classic hosted by the University of Manitoba this weekend.

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Webster finished the men’s 3,000-metre race in a time of eight minutes and 44.59 seconds to earn the top spot, while Altrogge reached a height of 4.30 m in the men’s pole vault to finish first and also earned a bronze in the men’s 60 m hurdles with a time of 8.51 seconds.

At the end of the event, seven Saskatchewan athletes and two relay teams reached the podium.

Saskatchewan Sport Awards winners announced

The six recipients of the 2023 Saskatchewan Sport Awards Excellence Awards were announced on Thursday at a gala event in Regina.

Humboldt 3×3 basketball player Paige Crozon was named Female Athlete of the Year, while Pike Lake diver Rylan Wiens claimed male honours.

Both youth category recipients hailed from Regina as diving’s Lila Stewart and tennis’ Keegan Rice were the female and male recipients, respectively.

Saskatoon Lasers Swimming Club’s Ryan Jones was named Coach of the Year and the Team of the Year Award went to baseball’s North Regina Little League Major All-Stars.

Saskatoon teams lead PJHL standings

With only a couple of weeks left until the Prairie Junior Hockey League season wraps up on Feb. 18, the Saskatoon Royals and the Saskatoon Quakers are the top two teams in the standings.

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With a record of 24-6-0-5, the Royals have 53 points for first place and are followed in second place by the Quakers with a 23-9-0-4 record and 50 points.

The Pilot Butte Storm (49 points), Delisle Chiefs (49 points), Regina Capitals (47 points) and Saskatoon Westleys (38 points) round out the top six.

Blazers No. 1 in SMAAAHL

The Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League will wrap up its season on Feb. 25, but the Saskatoon Blazers currently hold the top spot in the standings with a 25-6-3 record for 53 points in 34 games.

In second, Regina’s Pat Canadians also have 53 points, but have played 37 games so far this season with a 26-10-1 record.

The Warman Wildcats are currently in third with 47 points (22-10-3), while the Saskatoon Contacts are tenth with 32 points (14-19-4).

One month left in SFU18AAAHL

Regular season play for the Saskatchewan Female U18 AAA Hockey League will conclude on March 3 and the Regina Rebels will look to maintain their No. 1 ranking.

The Rebels have 65 points through 25 games with a 21-3-1-0 record, while the Saskatoon Stars are second with 49 points in 20 games with a 14-2-3-1 record.

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