Box Score Box Score

The University of Regina's men's basketball team got off to a slow start on Friday night, but found its shooting touch and defeated the Winnipeg Wesmen by a 91-61 score in a Canada West game at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

The Wesmen opened up the game on an 11-2 run and led by five after the first quarter, but the Cougars scored 14 of the final 15 points of the half and led by 11 at the break. Regina's hot shooting continued into the third quarter, when the hometown Cougars scored 34 points to put the game out of reach.

Third-year guard Jeff Lukomski scored a game-high 25 points for Regina, ten of which came in the final two minutes of the third quarter alone. Playing in his first Canada West game of his career, rookie guard Austin Bates (pictured) scored 14 points – 12 of which came in the first half – and shot 6-for-10 from the field in 22 minutes on the floor.

Kris Heshka started for the Cougars, but got into early foul trouble and only played one minute in the first half and 11 minutes in the game. He ended up with eight points and five rebounds. Paul Schubach scored nine points for Regina, while Jamal Williams had eight points, six rebounds, and six assists. Jayes Tarka had a spirited eight minutes on the floor, drilling his first career three-pointer and recording a thunderous put-back dunk off of a missed Heshka layup.

Mike James had a team-high 12 points for the Wesmen, who shot just 27.1% from the floor during the game. Nick Lother had 11 points and four steals for Winnipeg, while James Horaska had ten points. The Wesmen went 5-for-22 from beyond the arc, while the Cougars shot 53.8% from three-point land.

The win gives the Cougars a 1-0 record to start the season, while Winnipeg drops to 1-2.

The two teams will square off again on Saturday night at the CKHS. Game time is scheduled for 8 p.m.

NOTES: Bates, Marek Downarowicz, Lynn Gee, Sterling Nostedt, and Will Tallman all made their Canada West debuts for the Cougars.