After a weekend off from the Canada West schedule, the University of Regina's women's basketball team returns to the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport this Friday and Saturday for a pair of big games against the No. 2-ranked UBC Thunderbirds.
 
It's a big weekend for the Cougars and the T-Birds, as both teams are part of the four-team knot that's currently separated by just one game at the top of the Pioneer Division. Saskatchewan and UBC are atop the division with 13-3 records, with Alberta (13-4) just a half game behind with a Thursday night matchup at Calgary (9-8) on the schedule. The fourth-place Cougars (12-4) are a half game back of Alberta and two games up on fifth-place Winnipeg entering Thursday's play.
 
The carrot dangling in front of all these teams down the stretch run of the conference schedule is a playoff system that heavily rewards the top three teams in the division. Those teams will all get a bye through the first round of the playoffs and host quarterfinal series, while the fourth-place team will get a bye but will have to hit the road to square off against the second-place team. The fifth-place, sixth-place, and seventh-place teams will also make the postseason, but will have to survive a best-of-three play-in series before hitting the road in the quarters.
 
The Cougars will be hoping to replicate the success they had two weekends ago against an Alberta team that was ranked No. 3 in the CIS at the time. The U of R won 88-72 over the Pandas on Friday, then shot the lights out of the CKHS on Saturday for an 86-78 win.
 
Saturday will be Senior Night at the CKHS, as fifth-year players Jennilea Coppola and Taylor Pelletier will play the final home conference games of their CIS careers. Coppola became the U of R's all-time leader in blocked shots in January, while Pelletier has started three games for the Cougars this year and has averaged over 13 minutes played per game in conference play.
 
Coppola, Kehlsie Crone, Alyssia Kajati, Charlotte Kot, and Katie Polischuk will likely form the starting five for the Cougars with Sara Hubenig, Christina McCusker, and Caitlin Zacharias joining Pelletier off the bench as head coach Dave Taylor has mainly used a nine-player rotation this season.
 
UBC has gone with the same starting lineup in all 16 of its games this year – Cassandra Knievel, Diana Lee, Adrienne Parkin, Harleen Sidhu, and Kris Young. Young averages just a shade under 18 points per game for the T-Birds, who generally go eight deep with Cherub Lum, Kara Spotton, and Stephanie Bell playing roles off the bench.
 
Winners of eight consecutive Canada West games, UBC hasn't lost since a 75-62 setback to Saskatchewan as part of a weekend split in Saskatoon in late November.
 
Game time is scheduled for 6 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday (canadawest.tv).