Second-year guard Mike Malecha came off the bench to score 28 points on Friday night, leading the University of Regina's men's basketball team to a 107-89 road win over Trinity Western.
 
Malecha was 10-for-14 from the field overall and was a spectacular 7-for-10 from three-point range, joining Jeff Lukomski and Ryan Michell as the only Cougars ever to drill seven threes in a single Canada West game. Malecha's 28 points smash his previous career high of eight.
 
Even more importantly for the Cougars, they improve to 6-5 on the season and have now won four consecutive Canada West games as they sit in sixth place in a Pioneer Division which sends its top seven teams to the postseason under the current format.
 
The Cougars never trailed in the win, opening the game on an 8-0 run with buckets on their first four possessions and leading the rest of the way. They led by as many as 18 points in the first half and had a 19-point lead at 87-68 early in the fourth, but had to hold off a Trinity Western team that went on an 18-4 run sparked by Justin Bakuteka to cut the lead to seven with three minutes to go.
 
But that was as close as the Spartans got, as back-to-back triples by Brandon Tull put the game away for the Cougars.
 
Bakuteka hit eight triples and finished with a game-high 35 points for Trinity Western, which falls to 1-10 on the season. The Spartans also had 14 points from Taylor Heinrichs and 12 apiece from both Jesse Jeffers and Peter Spangehl.
 
Besides Malecha's brilliance, the Cougars also had fine efforts from both Jonathan Tull (23 points, seven assists, six rebounds) and Brandon Tull (20 points, six assists). Travis Sylvestre added 16 points for the Cougars, while Will Tallman's 11 points and 10 rebounds earned him his second double-double of the campaign.
 
The two teams will meet again on Saturday night in Langley (7:00 PST, canadawest.tv).