In its final games before the December break, the University of Regina's men's basketball team hosts Brandon on Friday and Saturday (8 p.m.) at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
The Cougars are now 3-5 after registering splits in each of their last three weekends – an especially impressive feat in the last two, which were against No. 10-ranked Calgary and on the road at Lethbridge without the services of injured guard
Alex Igual.
Last weekend saw the Cougars up by double digits at the half in both games against the Pronghorns, though the similarities in the two ended there. The Pronghorns mounted a big second-half rally on Friday to win it 93-85, but the Cougars ended up leading from wire to wire in Saturday's 75-60 victory.
The Cougars currently sit in eighth place in Canada West's Pioneer Division. The new conference structure will see seven teams in the division advance to the postseason, so the U of R enters the weekend two games back of Lethbridge and Winnipeg for the final playoff berth as the Cougars approach the halfway mark of the schedule.
In his first season with the U of R,
Jonathan Tull is the team's leading scorer with an average of 19.3 points per game. He's also averaging 5.5 rebounds per contest, leads the team in both assists (20) and blocks (7), and is second on the Cougars with 11 steals. His younger brother
Brandon Tull is averaging 14.5 points per game and is second on the team in rebounds, while
Travis Sylvestre scores 12 per game and
Will Tallman averages 8.8 points and a team-leading 7.4 rebounds per game.
Matthew Augustine has stepped in as a starter with Igual gone and has been used heavily, averaging just under 28 minutes played per game in the last four.
Brandon (1-7) had lost their first seven Canada West games of the season, but got into the win column last Saturday with a 94-89 victory over Trinity Western that saw Kenonte Ramsey come off the bench to score 26 points and Earl Thompson, Jr. collect 22 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Thompson is the team's leading scorer, though D.J. Jordan, Ramsey, and Ali-Mounir Benabdelhak also average in double figures in points for the Bobcats.
After this weekend, the Cougars will have almost an entire month off before returning to action at the non-conference Wesmen Classic in Winnipeg from Dec. 28 to Dec. 30. The draw for the tournament is expected to be released on Friday.
