The University of Regina's men's basketball team led from wire to wire in a 95-72 home victory over Trinity Western on Saturday night at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

An early 19-4 run for that spanned most of the first quarter put the Cougars in control, and Brian Ofori finished with career highs in both points (17) and rebounds (15) as he registered his first double-double in a Canada West game.

"I thought we competed well defensively in the first two quarters which allowed us to get some easy baskets in transition," Cougars head coach Steve Burrows said. "We feed off Brian's energy, and I thought he did what he does well for us in the first half."

Besides Ofori's contributions, the Cougars also had a big game from Brandon Tull with a team-leading 18 points and a game-high four steals. Aaron McGowan had a strong game off the bench with 14 points and five assists in a team-high 27 minutes on the floor, while Jonathan Tull had 13 points and Alex Igual chipped in with 11.

The win was a big one as far as the tightly packed Pioneer Division standings are concerned. The Cougars (6-3) started out the day in sixth place, but leapfrogged both Lethbridge and Victoria into fourth thanks to Saturday losses by the Pronghorns and the Vikes. Regina is now just a half game back of third-place Manitoba in the division.

Kelvin Smith led Trinity Western (0-9) with a game-high 22 points, while Lucas Mannes scored 14 and Matt Hayashi had a team-leading eight rebounds.

Regina and Trinity Western will finish off the weekend set with what will be one of only two games across the entire CIS on Sunday. Game time is scheduled for 4 p.m.