The University of Regina's men's basketball team went through a third-quarter drought and never recovered, losing by a 83-76 score to Lethbridge on Friday night at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
 
The Cougars led 43-36 at halftime after a solid second quarter, but it was all Lethbridge in the third. The Pronghorns outscored Regina by a massive 31-11 count in the quarter, turning a seven-point deficit into a 13-point lead. The Cougars made it a one-possession game late in the fourth as six consecutive points made it 82-79, but could draw no closer as Lethbridge held on for a crucial Canada West road victory.
 
Rob Olsen led Lethbridge (3-0) with 20 points and also had a team-high four assists in the win. Brandon Brine added 16 points and 12 rebounds for a double-double, while Christopher Maughan had 15 points and Zac Overwater came off the bench to score 11 points in 15 minutes.
 
The Cougars (2-1) were led by Jonathan Tull's game-high 23 points, while Will Tallman had 10 rebounds for the U of R. Travis Sylvestre also had 16 points for Regina, 13 of which came in the first half.
 
The first quarter saw Lethbridge jump out to an early lead courtesy of a 10-0 run powered by Brine. That made it 12-2 four minutes into the opening period, and though the Cougars got the deficit down to four early in the second Lethbridge quickly restored the double-digit lead. That forced Cougars head coach Steve Burrows to call a timeout, and the Cougars promptly reeled off a massive 24-4 run to build up a 10-point lead of their own.
 
But the seven-point lead at the half was quickly erased by the visiting Pronghorns. They scored the first 11 points of the third quarter to retake the lead, then went on a 8-0 run over a span of just 90 seconds midway through the period to go back up by 10.
 
Lethbridge led by as many as 15 points in the fourth before the Cougars made things interesting down the stretch. Jonathan Tull led the Cougars on a 10-2 run that cut the lead all the way down to three with just under two minutes to go, but the two free throws by Tull that capped that surge turned out to be the final points of the game for the U of R. Olsen and Michael Pierzchala both hit a pair of free throws in the last 50 seconds to seal the win.
 
Turnovers were an issue for both teams, with Lethbridge ending up with 26 and the Cougars giving up the ball 23 times. The Cougars held a 47-40 rebounding edge, while Lethbridge shot 44.6% from the field compared to 38.9% for the U of R. But the difference might have been free throw shooting, as Lethbridge was 21-for-25 from the stripe and the Cougars were just 13-for-26.
 
The two teams will rematch on Saturday night at the CKHS (8:00, canadawest.tv).