University of Regina Athletics

The University of Regina's women's basketball team only had seven players available on Friday night due to a spate of injuries, but the Cougars were still able to come away with a 76-50 win over Fraser Valley in non-conference action at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
 
All five starters broke into double figures in points for the Cougars in the victory, led by Alyssia Kajati's 19. Jennilea Coppola had 15, while Katie Polischuk scored 13, Taylor Pelletier had 11, and Kehlsie Crone added 10.
 
Kaitlyn McDonald led Fraser Valley with 12 points, all of which came on her game-high four three-pointers.
 
The Cougars were on fire to start the game, taking a 33-18 lead after the opening quarter with Polischuk, Pelletier, and Crone doing most of the damage with eight points apiece. And most of the offence came from three-point land, with the Cougars hitting six triples and shooting a blistering 60% from downtown.
 
And despite having only rookies Britton Belyk and Christina McCusker available off the bench, the closest Fraser Valley came after the first was when another McDonald triple brought the Cascades to within 12 three minutes into the third. But the Cougars responded with a 7-0 run to push the lead up to 19 – the largest of the night at that point – and weren't threatened after that.
 
Kajati added a game-high nine rebounds for the Cougars to fall just short of a double-double. The U of R had a massive rebounding advantage in the win, pulling down 47 boards to Fraser Valley's 25. Belyk and McCusker were both heavily used off the bench, with Belyk scoring six points in 31 minutes played and McCusker adding two points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes.

Besides McDonald's 12, Fraser Valley also had a 10-point effort from Nataliia Gavryliuk and nine points from Sarah Wierks.
 
The Cougars are now 5-2 against CIS competition in non-conference, while Fraser Valley drops to 1-2.
 
In Friday's early game, Saskatchewan trounced Carleton by an 81-51 margin.
 
Tournament Schedule
Thursday – Saskatchewan 62, Fraser Valley 57 [box]
Thursday – Regina 61, Carleton 55 [box]
Friday, 5:00 – Saskatchewan 81, Carleton 51 [box]
Friday, 7:00 – Regina 76, Fraser Valley 50 [box]
Saturday, 11:00 – Carleton vs. Fraser Valley
Saturday, 1:00 – Regina vs. Saskatchewan