Box Score Box Score

The University of Regina's men's basketball team won the third and deciding game of the Great Plains Division semifinal on Saturday night, defeating the Winnipeg Wesmen by an 85-74 score at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

The Cougars, who never trailed, scored the first eight points of the game and enjoyed a 14-point advantage after one quarter. Winnipeg fought back and cut the lead to five at the half, but the Cougars opened the second half with 13 consecutive points and never led by less than ten the rest of the way.

“We played with better energy tonight,” Cougars head coach James Hillis said. “I was real pleased with our 'D' on both (Nick) Lother and (Peter) Lomuro tonight after those two made us look like a junior boys team last night.”

Third-year forward Kris Heshka matched his career high with 28 points tonight and added 11 rebounds for a double-double. Jordan McFarlen was equally impressive in the win, scoring a career-high 16 points and adding 12 rebounds to collect his second consecutive double-double. Jamal Williams led all players with 15 rebounds, helping the Cougars to a 55-32 advantage over Winnipeg on the glass.

Mike James led Winnipeg with 23 points, while Ryan Willerton pulled down a team-leading eight rebounds. After going off for 43 points during Friday's game, Lother was held to 17 points on Saturday. Lomuro ended up with 15 points.

Regina now moves on to face Brandon in the Great Plains Division final. The two teams will begin the best-of-three series on Friday night in Brandon.

NOTES: Friday night's game marked the final home game in a Cougar uniform for fourth-year centre Steven Christie, who will graduate with a Bachelor of Science with a major in geology later this spring … Christie, who appeared briefly in the third quarter tonight, had his most memorable moment as a Cougar back in late November when he tipped in the game-winning bucket at the buzzer in overtime during a road game against Thompson Rivers.