SASKATOON, Saskatchewan – The Trinity Western women's basketball team hung with the No. 4 Saskatchewan Huskies but ultimately came up short, losing 74-59 Friday at the PAC.

Saskatchewan raced out to a 18-6 first quarter and, despite the Spartans playing step for step with the Huskies the rest of the way, the home side never trailed over the final three quarters en route to the 15-point win.

With the victory, the Huskies, who have now won eight straight games, improve to 12-3 and remain in the top spot in the Canada West Pioneer Division standings. Trinity Western drops to 4-11.
 
Saskatchewan hasn't lost since a split with the No. 3 ranked UBC Thunderbirds on the final weekend of play in the first half of the Canada West women's basketball season.
 
Four different Huskies scored double-digits in the win including guard Desarae Hogberg with 16 points from the bench. Starting guard Riley Humbert scored 15 points, while reigning Canada West MVP and Defensive Player of the Year Dalyce Emmerson tallied 11. Laura Dally added another 10. Emmerson led the Huskies on the boards, recording eight rebounds in the game.
 
Kayla Gordon (Prince George, B.C.) led the Spartans in the game with 12 points. Luca Schmidt (Langley, B.C.) added 10 points and eight rebounds.

The Spartans committed 26 turnovers in the game and the Huskies scored 30 points off of those mistakes. Trinity Western earned just 10 points off of 17 Saskatchewan turnovers.

"Tonight was a great battle against a very good team and I thought we rose to the challenge," said Spartans coach Cheryl Jean-Paul. "I thought we made a statement to ourselves that we can work this hard and stand almost tall enough for the full 40 minutes against an opponent who expects to be playing until the very end of the season. Too many turnovers and poor finishing in the first quarter still demonstrates that we have a lot of growth left with this young group, but I'm proud of everyone's contributions on both sides of the floor and look forward to another battle tomorrow."

Saskatchewan jumped out of the gate quickly with a 6-0 run and led by 12 at the end of the first quarter. Trinity Western found the basket more frequently in the final three frames but the early lead by the Huskies' was too much for the Spartans to overcome. The Huskies led 35-21 at halftime and 56-40 at the end of the third.
 
Saskatchewan finished the game shooting at 50 per cent, while the Spartans shot at 45 per cent.
 
The two teams will meet again Saturday night at the PAC. Tipoff is slated for 6:15 p.m. and can be viewed on canadawest.tv

Game Notes: First-year guard Jessie Brown (Langley) made her first Canada West start with the Spartans…Brown finished with nine points and three steals…TWU has dropped their seven games.