The University of Regina's women's basketball team took the lead in their best-of-three Canada West play-in series with a convincing 74-56 win over Fraser Valley on Friday night in Abbotsford, B.C.

The Cougars led from wire to wire in the win, opening up the game on a 10-0 run and leading the rest of the way. Regina led by eight after the first quarter and took a 16-point lead into halftime after finishing the second with nine consecutive points.

Fraser Valley never threatened in the second half, as the Cougars led by at least 15 points the entire way until a pair of UFV buckets late in the fourth.

"We did a good job rebounding the ball today, which was critical for us," Cougars head coach Dave Taylor said. "We'll have to clean up a few things tomorrow and we'll need to get the same type of effort on Saturday that we got tonight."

Kehlsie Crone had 15 points and eight assists for the Cougars, while Katie Polischuk matched her with 15 points while pulling down seven rebounds. Both Crone and Polischuk had three triples in the win. Alyssia Kajati had the game's lone double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, with Jennilea Coppola chipping in with 10 points and Charlotte Kot adding eight points and nine rebounds.

Christina McCusker added nine points and six rebounds off the bench for the U of R.

Kaitlyn Brink scored a game-high 20 points for Fraser Valley, while Celeste Dyck added 11 points, six rebounds, six steals, and five assists.

The Cougars had a pronounced edge on the glass, finishing with a 49-34 rebounding edge in the win. They also shot 44% from the field, while UFV shot a shade under 29% and was only 1-for-11 from three-point range.

The two teams will meet for Game 2 of the series on Saturday at the Envision Athletic Centre in Abbotsford (6:00 PST, canadawest.tv). The winner of the play-in series will move on to face UBC in a Canada West quarterfinal series next weekend, with the winner of that series advancing to the Canada West Final Four.

NOTES: The Cougars are now 3-0 all-time against Fraser Valley in postseason games.