Box Score

Fourth-year forward Paul Gareau piled up a season-high 31 points as the University of Regina's men's basketball team scored an 86-79 victory over Winnipeg on Friday night at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

Gareau was 10-for-12 from the field and 11-for-13 from the line and added 12 rebounds to register a double-double for the Cougars, who improve to 4-10 with the victory.

“It's great to get that one, and until they tell us that we're mathematically out of the playoffs we're going to keep battling out there,” Cougars head coach James Hillis said. “Gareau was awesome for us tonight and we got some great minutes from Antonio Tate off the bench after Brendan (Hebert) got into foul trouble.”

The game was a back-and-forth affair through the first quarter and a half until the Cougars went on an 11-0 run to open up a nine-point advantage late in the second. Though Regina never gave up the lead after that and even held a 19-point edge early in the fourth, Winnipeg didn't make it easy on them. The Wesmen chipped away at the deficit and cut it all the way down to five in the final minute of the contest, but rookie guard Ryan Schmidt hit two late free throws for the Cougars to ice the victory.

Connor Burns also scored a double-double for Regina, scoring 15 points and leading all players with 13 rebounds. Tate had his finest performance as a Cougar, scoring 11 points and adding a game-high five steals to go along with a team-leading four assists in 19 spirited minutes off the bench.

Winnipeg (4-11) was led by Dominique Brown, who scored a team-high 17 points. Travis Krahn had 15 points for the Wesmen, while Kelvin Smith scored 14 and Mark McNee chipped in with 10. Andrew Cunningham had eight rebounds and led all players with eight assists.

Despite the win, the Cougars remain 3½ games back of a playoff spot as Lethbridge (8-7) blasted Manitoba (8-7) on Friday night in Lethbridge.

Winnipeg and Regina will square off again on Saturday night at the CKHS. Game time is scheduled for 8 p.m. following the conclusion of the women's game.