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The tournament host and second-seeded Regina Cougars rolled over No. 7 Cape Breton in the third quarterfinal of the 2009 CIS women's basketball championship defeating the Capers 66-51, Friday evening, in front of a standing-room-only crowd of 2,212 at the University of Regina.

Canada West squads have scored convincing wins in each of the first three opening-round match-ups at the championship. Earlier Friday, top-ranked Simon Fraser dominated No. 8 Ottawa 89-42 and No. 4 Alberta beat No. 5 Laval 84-64. Teams currently competing in the Canada West conference (Canada West and Great plains merged in 2001-02) have captured the last 17 CIS titles.

The Canada West finalist Cougars, whose lone Bronze Baby triumph dates back to 2000-01 and who reached the national final against UBC a year ago in Saskatoon, will play in Saturday's second semi-final at 8 p.m. Central Time, live on The Score Television Network. They will face the winners of the last quarterfinal duel between No. 3 Windsor and No. 6 Saskatchewan.

Atlantic conference champion Cape Breton will face the losers of the Windsor-Saskatchewan match on the consolation side Saturday at 3 p.m. Central.

Playing in front of a boisterous home crowd, Regina jumped out to a quick 10-2 lead and never looked back. The Cougars were ahead 23-8 after the opening quarter, 38-17 at the half and 52-33 after 30 minutes of play.

Cape Breton closed the gap to 10 points with a 12-3 run to open the final quarter, making it 55-45 with 6:00 left on the clock, but couldn't get any closer.

Fifth-year post Chelsea Cassano was named game MVP for the victors after she recorded a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double.

Fourth-year guard Rebecca Schmidt added 14 points, while fifth-year guard Megan Cherkas had nine points, six assists and five rebounds.

Regina shot 50.0 percent (26-52) from the floor on the night compared to 31.3 percent (15-48) for Cape Breton. The main difference came in the first half when the locals shot 57.1 percent (16-28), while the visitors made only five of 20 shots (20.0%).

“There were nerves before the game started, but once we settled in, we were able to take advantage of our size and strength inside, and control the game in the first half,” Cassano said. “I have to credit our coaches, they did a lot of scouting and with their help we were able to win.”

For Cape Breton, first-team all-Canadian and AUS MVP Kelsey Hodgson had a night she'd rather forget.

The nation's leading scorer this season with an average of 25.8 points per game, the fourth-year guard from Fredericton was kept scoreless in the first half, going 0-for-10 on field-goal attempts, and finally got on the board 2:24 into the third frame with a two-point bucket and a free throw. Hodgson finished the third quarter with 10 points and had 14 points on 3-of-19 shooting for the game, including 1-of-10 from three-point range.

Third-year forward Kari Everett had a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double in the losing effort, while Karmen Brown also scored 10.

“We are a young team and we came out and played like a young team, and they have an experienced group and that was the difference early,” said Cape Breton head coach Fabian McKenzie. “In the second half we had a goal to cut their lead to 12 points, and we were able to do that, but it was just a little too big of a lead and too late in the game to complete a comeback.”