The University of Regina's women's basketball team made it a weekend sweep over the Alberta Pandas on Saturday with an 86-78 win at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
 
It's an important result for the Pioneer Division standings, as No. 3-ranked Alberta (11-4) drops from first place to fourth and the Cougars are now in third place behind division leaders Saskatchewan (11-3) and UBC (11-3).
 
The Cougars led from wire to wire in this one, but that doesn't come close to telling the whole game story. The CKHS faithful were treated to some near-perfect basketball by the Cougars in the first half, as they shot 72% from the field over the first two quarters – including 6-for-7 from three-point range – and took a commanding 54-32 lead into the break.
 
The hot shooting by the Cougars looked like it might continue after halftime as they opened up the third quarter with 10 consecutive points including triples by Charlotte Kot and Kehlsie Crone, giving the U of R a 64-32 lead.
 
But apparently even a 32-point lead isn't always safe in basketball, as Alberta held the Cougars scoreless over the next five and a half minutes while going on a Jessilyn Fairbanks-led 12-0 run to get the deficit down to 20. Employing a press and half-court trap that was a large part of Regina's 27 turnovers during the game, the Pandas got the lead down to 16 heading into the fourth.
 
It looked as though a Katie Polischuk three-pointer which put the Cougars back up by 16 with just over four minutes to go might do it, but Alberta made one big final push to make things interesting. After their second 12-0 run of the half, the Pandas trailed by just four after Saskia Van Ginhoven forced a turnover and converted the fast break opportunity with 52 seconds left – but that was as close as the visitors would come. The Cougars got a defensive stop Alberta's next time down the floor, and two free throws each by Crone and Polischuk in the game's final seconds finally put it out of reach.
 
Polischuk finished with 24 points and tied teammate Jennilea Coppola for the game high with eight rebounds, while Crone scored 21 points and led all players with eight assists. Alyssia Kajati had 16 points, with Coppola also scoring 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting to go along with her eight boards.
 
For Alberta, it was all Van Ginhoven. The fifth-year forward was 11-for-20 from the field and 11-for-12 from the line to finish with 33 points and also had seven rebounds and five steals for the Pandas. You have to go back almost 20 years for the last time an Alberta player scored that many in a game, as Jackie Simon also had 33 in a home win over Calgary on Nov. 29, 1996. Fairbanks also had 19 points, six rebounds, six steals, and four assists for Alberta.
 
The Cougars have next weekend off before finishing their Canada West schedule at home against UBC (Feb. 6/7) and on the road at Winnipeg (Feb. 13/14). It's right back to work for Alberta, which will host Brandon for two home games next weekend (Jan. 30/31) before closing out conference play at Calgary (Feb. 5) and at home against Lethbridge (Feb. 13/14).