Looking for a pair of wins to crawl back into the Prairie Division playoff race, the University of Regina's men's basketball team hosts Winnipeg on Friday and Saturday at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

The Cougars, who have qualified for the postseason for 16 consecutive years under longtime head coach James Hillis, enter the weekend 3½ games back of fourth-place Lethbridge for the final postseason berth in the division. After this weekend, Regina wraps up its home conference schedule with two games against Alberta next weekend before finishing the Canada West slate at Lethbridge (Feb. 10 and Feb. 11) and at Saskatchewan (Feb. 18).

Paul Gareau continues to lead the Cougars in scoring and rebounding, as the bearded fourth-year forward averages 16.3 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. Connor Burns, who has seen his floor time more than double from last season as he's moved into a starting role, averages 11.3 points and 6.8 rebounds per game and has posted three double-doubles this year.

Vule Grujic has been a strong midseason addition to the Cougars, as the rookie post is averaging 10.5 points per contest in his four games and has seen plenty of time off the bench for the U of R.

Winnipeg – which nearly pulled off an upset over No. 3-ranked UBC last weekend but ended up losing by one to the Thunderbirds – is guided by second-year bench boss Mike Rambault. Third-year forward Mark McNee leads the Wesmen (4-10) with 12.4 points per game, while Redlands College transfer guard Andrew Cunningham leads the team with 39 assists despite playing in only six of Winnipeg's 14 conference games this season.

Cunningham (11.7 points per game) and Dominique Brown (11.6) also average in double figures in scoring for Winnipeg.

Game time is scheduled for 8 p.m. following the conclusion of the women's game on both Friday and Saturday. Both games will be webcast live at www.canadawest.tv.