The University of Regina's men's basketball team pushed its Canada West winning streak to five games after a 96-81 win over Trinity Western on Saturday night that completed a road sweep for the Cougars over the Spartans.
 
Jonathan Tull finished with a game-high 28 points for the Cougars (7-5) and also collected four assists and four steals. Travis Sylvestre added 19, while Brandon Tull scored 15 and Mike Malecha was again stellar off the bench with 14 points on 4-for-5 three-point shooting. Will Tallman added 11 points and tied Brandon Tull for the team lead with seven rebounds.
 
Trinity Western actually led for much of the game before a huge second half for the Cougars which saw them outscore the Spartans by a 56-34 margin. A large part of the change in momentum was a quick 12-2 run by the U of R over a span of about two and a half minutes midway through the third quarter which put the Cougars up by nine. Trinity Western got to within four at one point in the fourth, the Cougars immediately responded with a quick 10-2 run to get the lead back into the double digits.
 
Kelvin Smith came off the bench to lead TWU (1-11) with 18 points, while Justin Bakuteka scored 16 and Tyus Allen had 14. Taylor Heinrichs led all players with 14 rebounds for the Spartans.
 
The Cougars sit in fifth place in the Pioneer Division standings and will finish off the Canada West schedule with two games apiece against teams currently in fourth, sixth, seventh, and eighth in the division. The Cougars play at Saskatchewan next weekend before a four-game homestand with games against Alberta (Jan. 23/24) and UBC (Feb. 6/7). The schedule finishes with a two-game road set at Winnipeg on Feb. 13 and Feb. 14.
 
NOTES: Jonathan Tull is now averaging a conference-leading 21.3 points per game for the Cougars ... no other Canada West player  currently averages over 20 points per game ... Malecha entered the weekend with 38 total points on the season in 10 games played, but scored 42 over the two-game weekend set at TWU.