Huskies take down Lightning and advance to final
The Second Semi Final took place between the Keyano Huskies and the St. Mary's Lightning with the winner booking a trip to the final. The Lightning struck first with 2 quick baskets from Juhee Anderson and Emily Wagner. The Lightning added to their lead hitting one at the stripe and going up 5-0. The Huskies started to play high pressure defense but Wagner found a hole and scored again. The Huskies got on the board 3 minutes in with a quick basket, but the Lightning scored again forcing the Huskies to take a timeout. Coming out of the break the Huskies scored first reducing the St. Marys lead to 5. The Lightnings quick paced offence was effective early, but the Huskie offence did start to wear down the Lightning Defense as they started to narrow the deficit. Any time the Huskies would score, Wagner would come straight down the court driving and scoring for the Lightning. The Huskies continued to chip away however, and with 2 minutes on the clock the score read Lighting 20, Huskies 18. The Huskies scored again to tie it at 20 before the Lightning scored 2 at the line to re-take the lead. Juhee Anderson hit a late 3 to put the Lightning up 25-20 at the break.
The Lightning started the second quarter with the ball and quickly scored to open up the lead more. Keyano quickly responded with a quick inside play from Moiyan Toure. The teams again traded baskets and the first 2 minutes disappeared with the score 31-24 Lightning. The Huskies took a quick timeout and took control of the ball on the inbound, missing on their first attempt. Keyano again looked to chip away at the St. Mary's lead hitting a 3 and reducing the Lightning lead to 2. St. Mary's responded with a quick bucked and took a timeout up 33-29. A quick Keyano basket again brought the lead down to 2 and Keyano looked to tie it on their next trip down the court converting on more second chance points. The Lightning did not like the tie and responded within 8 seconds re-taking the lead. A 3 from Hannah Helton of St. Mary's again gave the Lighting a 5 point lead. Keyano again erased this quickly getting within 2, 40-38. With 1 minute left in the half, the Lightning got to the line hitting one of 2. The Huskies came down for an inside basket and reduced the deficit to one, but the Lightning got to the line and hit both re-establishing the 3 point lead. Keyano again got it back and was within 1 but a late St. Mary's basket saw them go up 45-42 going to the dressing room.
The third quarter started with the Lightning causing a Keyano Turnover. The Lightning missed on their first trip and the score remained steady. The Huskies scored first reducing the deficit to 1. 2 missed free throws for the Lightning saw the Huskies with an oppourtunity to take the lead, they did just this, going up 1 before the Lightning responded. A Keyano 3 gave them their biggest lead of the game at 2, 49-47. The Lightning's Wagner again responded tying it up on a solo effort at 49. The Lightning took back the lead on another Wagner bucket and after a defensive stop, Anderson extended the St. Mary's lead to 4. The differential stayed as the teams traded baskets and the clock continued to tick down. 3:30 on the clock saw the Lighting ahead 55-51 and looking for more. The Huskies were able to stop the charge and get two of their own. Again the Lightning hit a well timed basked with Juhee Anderson nailing a 3 to put the Lightning back up 5. The teams battled hard late, and defense took over for a while. Keyano broke the drought scoring 2, and bringing the game within 1 possession again. This is where the quarter ended with the lightning ahead 3, 58-55.
The fourth quarter started with the teams playing tight defense and not allowing any points for the first 90 seconds of the frame. Keyano earned a trip to the line but missed both attempts keeping the quarter scoreless. This continued all the way to 3 minutes when the Lightnings Hannah Helton opened the scoring. The Huskies were quick to respond keeping their deficit to only 3, 57-60. The Huskies scored again and reduced the lead to 1, but again the Lightning responded to keep their lead. Keyano earned a trip back to the line hitting one and making the St. Mary's lead 2. With 5 minutes on the clock the score became tied, 62-62 ramping up the intensity in the game. the teams traded baskets and hard defense played the score remained knotted at 64 with 3 minutes left. Moiyan Toure gave Keyano the lead on their next trip down but the Lightning answered with a 3 from Hannah Helton going up 1. The clock ticked past 1 minute remaining and the Huskies Tyshaine Page nailed a corner 3 to put the Huskies up 69-67 with 52 seconds left. The Lightning took a timeout and started deep in their own end. St. Mary's turned it over and gave the Huskies a chance to score, but they took to long getting a shot clock violation and giving the Lightning 16 seconds to tie or win it. The Lightning missed their final shot and the Huskies came back to win 69-67 in a thrilling finale.
The ACAC Players of the game were Hannah Helton for St. Mary's and Moiyan Toure for Keyano.