Box Score

The University of Regina's women's basketball team advanced to the Canada West championship game after a 72-56 victory over Fraser Valley in a conference semifinal game on Friday night at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

Regina's Carly Graham hit four three-pointers in the third quarter alone and six in the game as the fifth-year guard poured in a team-high 22 in the victory.

The No. 1-ranked Cougars will square off with No. 3 UBC on Saturday night, with the victor being crowned Canada West champions and earning an automatic berth to the 2012 CIS Championships in Calgary. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Though the Cougars entered Friday's game as the top-ranked team in the country, it was Fraser Valley that jumped out to a quick start. Led by Sarah Wierks, the Cascades scored the game's opening eight points before the U of R finally got on the board with a pair of Danielle Schmidt free throws over three minutes into the game.

After a three-pointer by Fraser Valley's Kayli Sartori put the Cascades back up by eight, the Cougars went on a momentum-changing run that saw the home side score 23 of the game's next 27 points over the last five minutes of the first and the first five of the second to build up a double-digit advantage.

The Cascades cut the deficit to four at the half, setting the stage for Graham's heroics in the third quarter.

Graham hit four three-pointers in less than five minutes in the third quarter, leading a Cougar charge that saw the U of R outscore UFV by a 24-13 margin to take a 15-point advantage into the fourth, which they held on to down the stretch for the victory. Graham, who fell just one three-pointer short of setting a new University of Regina single-game record, also had eight rebounds for the Cougars.

“We were absolutely terrible in the first half and were incredibly lucky to be up at halftime,” Cougars head coach Dave Taylor said. “Carly simply took the game over for us in the third quarter, and that's the benefit of having so many quality veterans that can step up for us. Hopefully we'll be able to build on our second-half momentum tomorrow against UBC.”

Lindsay Ledingham scored 13 points and added eight rebounds for the Cougars, while Joanna Zalesiak had 12 points and led all players in both assists (10) and steals (5). Jennilea Coppola came off the bench to tie for the game high with 11 rebounds in just 19 minutes on the floor.

Sarah Wierks tied Graham for the game high with 22 points for Fraser Valley and pulled down 10 rebounds to notch the Cascades' lone double-double of the contest. Sartori ended up with 15 points, while Nicole Wierks had 11 rebounds.

Fraser Valley will square off with Saskatchewan on Saturday night in the Canada West third place game, though it's already known that the Cascades will participate in the CIS East Regional next weekend in Ottawa. The Cascades and the Huskies will tip off at 5 p.m. at the CKHS.

NOTES: Saturday's conference championship game between Regina and UBC will be a rematch of the final from the only other time the Cougars hosted the Canada West Final Four ... the Cougars scored a 73-36 win over the Thunderbirds in that game to claim their only Canada West title to date.