Box Score

The University of Regina's women's basketball team needed a late surge to shake off an upset bid by the Winnipeg Wesmen on Friday night as the Cougars won 75-70 at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

The Cougars trailed by five with three minutes left in the fourth, but held the Wesmen to just one field goal for the remainder of the game and scored 10 consecutive points to take the lead. Nicole Clarke and Janine Guijt did all of the late damage for the U of R, including big three-pointers by both players down the stretch.

The win improves the U of R's record to 11-2 on the year. The Cougars remain in a tie for second place in the Prairie Division standings with Alberta, one win behind a Saskatchewan (12-1) team that took a road win over fourth-place Calgary on Friday.

Clarke ended up 10-for-21 from the field – including 4-for-12 from three-point land – and led all players with 29 points, her highest offensive output as a Cougar. She also added seven assists and six rebounds for the U of R, while Charlotte Kot scored 13 and added 11 rebounds for a double-double. Guijt ended up with 10 points, scoring in double figures for the third time in three games since joining the Cougars at midseason.

Stephanie Kleysen had a big double-double for Winnipeg, scoring 19 points and pulling down 18 rebounds. Nine of her rebounds were of the offensive variety and Kleysen also had three assists and three steals in the upset bid. Megan Noonan added 16 points for Winnipeg, while Alyssa Grant scored 13. Winnipeg drops to 6-7 on the season and remains four games back of Calgary for the fourth and final Prairie Division postseason berth.

With assistant Tami Pennell serving as head coach, Winnipeg came out strong on Friday. The Wesmen put together a big 12-0 run over a three-minute span late in the first and early in the second to build up a double-digit advantage over the No. 5-ranked Cougars. But Winnipeg's run was immediately followed by 11 straight U of R points to tie the game. Winnipeg took a 38-34 lead into halftime and led for almost the entire third quarter before a late triple by Madi Docherty put the Cougars up 55-54 heading into the fourth.

Winnipeg also held onto a slim lead for much of the fourth quarter, pushing the lead to five after a jumper by Grant with just over three minutes left. But Winnipeg would only score two points the rest of the way as the Cougars surged to their seventh consecutive victory.

The Cougars held a 52-45 rebounding advantage but turned the ball over 22 times compared to Winnipeg's 15 miscues. The Wesmen were shooting over 40% from three-point land for much of the game before settling in at a 34.8% for the contest, while the U of R was 27-for-66 (40.9%) from the field and 7-for-24 (29.2%) from downtown.

The two teams will meet again on Saturday night at the CKHS. They'll tip off at 5:00 p.m.