Huskie Pride

News
Schedule/Results
Roster
Statistics
Standings
Photo Gallery
Newsletter
Records
History
Facilities
Recruiting
Contact

Camps & Clinics
Junior Huskies
     Basketball Club

Spagrud ties Ganes for school's career conference scoring record

Saskatoon, Sask. - The University of Saskatchewan Huskies put in a strong defensive performance as they defeated the No. 5-ranked University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 79-75 Saturday night. The victory came before a season-high 1552 enthusiastic fans at the Physical Activity Complex on "Senior Night".

Sam Lamontagne and his parents along with coach Jockims

Huskie fifth-year senior guard Sam Lamontagne, who nailed three monster three-pointers tonight, was honoured prior to the tip-off as he was playing his final regular season home game. Lamontagne will get to play at the PAC again though, as the Huskies clinched at least second place, and a home playoff date, in the Central Division with the win.

Saskatchewan (17-17, 12-8 Canada West) improves to one game back of Central Division leader Alberta (21-11, 13-7), who lost 83-70 to Victoria Saturday night. Saskatchewan travels to Calgary (16-18, 10-10) next weekend to close out the regular season, while Alberta will be in Lethbridge (11-22, 6-14) for two games.

Andrew Spagrud scored 28 points and hauled in 16 rebounds to lead the Huskies offensive charge. Sophomore Rejean Chabot added 23 points, including 15 in the first half, in another strong effort. But the real story on this night was the Huskies defense, as they held the Thunderbirds to over ten points below their average offensive output coming into the game.

After UBC's All-Canadian guard Casey Archibald opened the scoring with a jumper, Saskatchewan went on a 12-4 run, capped by a Spagrud dunk off an assist from Mark Lynch with 12:48 to play in the period. UBC went on a 12-6 run of it's own, as two Archibald free throws knotted the score at 18 with just over seven minutes to go. But Saskatchewan responded by outscoring UBC 14-4 over the next six minutes, a run that began and ended with Chabot hitting from downtown. A three-ball by UBC forward Matt Rachar with a few seconds left on the clock made the score 32-26 for Saskatchewan at the half.

After the Huskies scored the first six points of the second half, the Thunderbirds made a 12-1 run to cut the lead to 39-38. But Lamontagne started to heat up, hitting three consecutive treys in a 14-6 Huskie run over the next three minutes. Freshman forward David Neufeld also hit a big three during that run, which put the home side up 53-44 with 12:37 to play.

With the Thunderbirds struggling offensively junior guard Chris Dyck began to take control, scoring nine straight T-Bird points to cut the lead to 61-55 with just over seven minutes to play. A bucket by Lynch off of a feed from Spagrud put the Dogs up 70-60 with 3:40 to go, and it seemed like the Huskies were in control.

With the Huskies up ten, the Thunderbirds scored a quick eight points to cut the lead to 72-70. A three-pointer from Jason Birring, a converted three-point play by Bryson Kool and a layup by Archibald put the games outcome in serious doubt with just under two minutes remaining.

Two free throws by Kool tied the game at 75 with 47.1 seconds to play. But Spagrud scored on a strong move to the basket with 31.6 seconds to go. Spagrud was fouled after rebounding a miss by Archibald, and hit one of two free throws with 15.1 showing on the clock. Archibald got a good look at the other end of the floor for the tie, but his shot fell short.

Spagrud would hit one more free throw with 0.9 seconds left, pushing his conference career point total to 1707, tying Huskie great Roger Ganes' record which has stood since 1978. Spagrud has now scored 2835 career points overall in 142 games, second to four-time All-Canadian Byron Tokarchuk's school record of 3445 points.

Spagrud was 9-13 from the field, 10-13 from the free throw line and also had three steals as he recorded his 20th double-double of the season. Chabot was 10-14 from the field, including 3-4 from beyond the arc. Lamontagne finished with nine points, and hit the 100th three in conference play of his career. Lynch finished with eight points on 3-4 shooting. Kyle Grant only scored four points, all from the charity stripe, but along with Chabot helped keep Archibald in check throughout the game.

Archibald scored five of his 16 points in the final two minutes. He grabbed seven boards, but was 0-7 from beyond the arc (5-16 overall) and committed five turnovers. Dyck finished with a team-high 23 points on 6-11 shooting. He was also 9-9 from the free throw line. Rachar scored 14 points off the bench on 6-8 shooting, and also collected a team-high eight boards. Kool, who had five big points down the stretch finished with seven points.

Both teams shot extremely well in the second half, with the Huskies hitting 60.0% of their shots and the Thunderbirds hitting 55.2% of theirs. The Huskies shot 51.9% from the floor for the game, while the T-Birds shot 47.1%.

The Thunderbirds were 22-27 from the free throw line, while the Huskies were only 17-27. The Thunderbirds outrebounded the Dogs 36-24 for the game, and enjoyed a 21-12 advantage in the first half. The T-Birds shot only 5-23 from downtown, while the Huskies were 8-21.