With fifth through ninth place in Canada West's Pioneer Division separated by just two games, the stretch run of the conference schedule should prove to be an exciting one – and that means plenty will be on the line this weekend as the University of Regina's men's basketball team hosts Alberta at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
The Cougars (7-7) come into the weekend tied with Winnipeg for the seventh and final postseason berth in the division, but are just a half game back of the sixth-place Golden Bears (7-6).
The U of R came into last weekend on a five-game winning streak, but two tight road losses to Saskatchewan – 76-72 on Friday and 88-80 on Saturday – put an end to that and dropped the Cougars' conference record to .500 for the season.
The Cougars have been led this season by
Jonathan Tull, a transfer from Acadia University who's pursuing a master's degree at the U of R. All Tull has done is lead the entire conference in scoring, and with an average of 20.2 points per game could become just the third Cougar to average over 20 since the U of R joined Canada West prior to the 2001-02 season. Much of Tull's damage is done from the free throw line, as he leads the conference in attempts (138) and is hitting 77.5% from the stripe.
Besides Tull, the Cougars' other four starters will likely be
Matthew Augustine,
Brandon Tull,
Travis Sylvestre, and
Will Tallman with
Alex Igual still out with a foot injury.
Brandon Tull and Sylvestre both average well into double figures in points per game, while Tallman is the team's leading rebounder with an average of 6.5 per game.
Mike Malecha,
Jeremy Zver, and
Ryan Delwo can be counted upon to come off the bench for the Cougars.
Fifth-year guard Joel Friesen, a transfer from Fraser Valley, leads Alberta and ranks sixth in the conference with an average of 18.3 points per game. Alberta is – by far – the top three-point shooting team in Canada West with an average of 41% from behind the arc this year. Friesen (34-for-81) is a big part of that, but Kenneth Otieno is 23-for-50 (46%) and Youssef Ouahrig (26-for-67, 38.8%) are also dangerous from deep and guards Ethan Dixon and Andriy Halushko both come off the bench and shoot over 50% from downtown for the Golden Bears.
Alberta's usual starting five consists of Friesen, Otieno, Ouahrig, Mamadou Gueye, and Brett Roughead. Rav Dhaliwal and Sebastien Denault get big minutes off the bench for the Golden Bears along with Dixon and Halushko.
Both Friday and Saturday's games are scheduled for an 8 p.m. tip at the CKHS (canadawest.tv).
NOTES: This will be the Golden Bears' first visit to the CKHS since the 2012-13 season, when the Cougars lost 79-65 on Jan. 25 but recovered for a 76-75 win over then-No. 4 Alberta the following day ... that Jan. 26 win was highlighted by a 23-point effort by Paul Gareau, who was a perfect 8-for-8 from the field that day.
