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Joanna Zalesiak and Carly Graham hit three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to break a late tie and power the University of Regina's women's basketball team to a 75-69 win over UBC on Saturday night at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

The Cougars looked like they might coast to their second double-digit victory in as many nights after opening up an 11-point lead midway through the fourth quarter, but UBC went on a 12-1 run capped by a Zara Huntley layup to tie the ball game with just under two minutes remaining.

That's when Zalesiak and Graham lit the fireworks from downtown. Zalesiak hit a three-pointer from the corner to break the 65-65 deadlock, and after a Kris Young layup attempt inexplicably failed to drop for the Thunderbirds, Graham hit a three from the opposite corner to put the Cougars up six with just 50 seconds left.

“We knew tonight would be much more of a grind than last night,” Cougars head coach Dave Taylor said. “We got contributions from the whole team, and tonight it was Carly and Megan (Chamberlin) off the bench that sparked us. As teams focus on Zalesiak we need performances from everyone and tonight we got that.”

Graham was 5-for-6 from three-point land and tied Zalesiak for the team high with 17 points. Zalesiak also had nine rebounds and six assists, while Chamberlin scored a career-high 12 points and Lindsay Ledingham added 10.

Zara Huntley led UBC in scoring for the second consecutive game, registering 17 points for the Thunderbirds. Alex Vieweg scored 15 and added a team-leading nine rebounds, while Leigh Stansfield came off the bench to score 10.

UBC (13-7) will finish off the Canada West schedule with two games at home against Thompson Rivers and two away at Victoria.

The Cougars (17-3) will square off with Saskatchewan next weekend in a home-and-home series that will see the two teams meet on Thursday at the CKHS and on Saturday in Saskatoon.

NOTES: Graham now has 43 three-pointers this season, just five shy of the school single-season record of 48 set by Bree Burgess during the 2000-01 campaign.