The University of Lethbridge men's and women's basketball teams are making long awaited appearances in the Canada West playoffs this weekend and action kicked off Thursday night in Regina.

The women's Horns team dropped a 71-58 decision to host University of Regina Cougars as the clubs opened their best-of-three playoff series. Lethbridge held a 30-29 lead at the half, but the Cougars took the lead for good early in the third quarter. Regina outscored the Pronghorns by a 19-10 margin in the third and put away the visitors with eight consecutive points over a three-minute span in the fourth quarter.

Sam Hornqvist led Lethbridge with 13 points and tied Hannah Blanchette for the team lead with five rebounds. Blanchette also had 10 points and five steals for the Pronghorns, while Kenzie Sheen chipped in with 11. It is the first playoff appearance for the Horns in eight seasons.

The victory gives the Cougars a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three conference quarter-final series, which will continue with Game 2 on Friday. If necessary, a third game will go on Saturday.

The Pronghorns men's basketball team is in the post-season for the first time in 10 years and they'll open their series tonight in Calgary against the University of Calgary Dinos. The teams split a pair of two-point games in the regular season with the Horns taking the last meeting on the final night of the regular season.

Check out this Horns preview for a look at the series.