Charlotte Kot's free throw with 1.4 seconds left in regulation sealed a 70-69 comeback road win for the University of Regina's women's basketball team over Trinity Western on Friday night.
 
The free throw by Kot made it a two-possession game, and it turned out to be necessary as TWU's Luca Schmidt drilled a desperation heave from well beyond half court to cut the final margin of victory to just one.
 
Kot finished with a team-high 16 points for the Cougars, who improve to 9-2 on the season and pull a half game ahead of Alberta for first place in the Pioneer Division. Katie Polischuk had an off night for the Cougars from the perimeter, but still chipped in with 15 points and pulled down a career-high 12 rebounds for her first CIS double-double.
 
Laurissa Weigl led Trinity Western (4-7) with 17 points.
 
The Spartans led for the majority of the game, taking the lead early in the first quarter and pushing the advantage all the way to 18 points after three-pointers on back-to-back possessions by Natalie Carkner and Jessica Brown in the second quarter. But the Cougars then held Trinity Western scoreless for almost five minutes while going on an 8-0 run that was highlighted by consecutive three-point plays by Alyssia Kajati and Kot.
 
The Cougars trailed by 10 at the half and by six through three quarters, then went to work in the fourth. A 12-2 run over four minutes in the final quarter that featured field goals by five different Cougars – including a big triple by Caitlin Zacharias and a three-point play by Jennilea Coppola that gave them their first lead since early in the first – proved to be the difference. Trinity Western briefly regained the lead after a three-pointer by Jamie Andrews-Stober and a basket by Chantelle Martin following a turnover, but Polischuk immediately responded with a three-pointer and the Cougars took back the lead for good.
 
Kajati finished with 12 points and seven rebounds for the Cougars, who travelled with only nine players this weekend with guard Kehlsie Crone injured.
 
The two teams will meet again on Saturday night in Langley (5:00 PST, canadawest.tv).