A big second-half run powered by fifth-year guard Aaron McGowan helped lift the University of Regina's men's basketball team to an 88-85 win and a weekend split on Saturday at MacEwan.

The Cougars trailed by two with three minutes to go in the third, but embarked on a huge 19-2 run to take a commanding 73-58 lead early in the fourth. McGowan caught fire during that span, hitting three triples and scoring 13 of his game-high 27 points in those three and a half minutes.

And though MacEwan went over six minutes without a field goal and trailed by 15 in the final quarter, the Griffins mounted a comeback to get right back in it. MacEwan outscored Regina 21-9 over the next seven minutes to make it a one-possession game, with most of the Griffins' scoring coming from the charity stripe where they were 17-for-20 in the fourth quarter alone.

McGowan's fifth triple of the game with just over two minutes left gave the Cougars an 85-79 lead and turned out to be the last field goal for either team. Three late free throws, a technical foul called on MacEwan, and a missed three-pointer at the buzzer gave the Cougars the win before embarking on the long overnight bus ride back home.

Besides McGowan's 27 points, the Cougars also had a 22-point performance by Alex Igual, 19 of which were scored in the first half alone. Brandon Tull added 13 points and tied Igual for the team high with seven rebounds, while Brian Ofori scored 10 points.

Thadius Galvez and Denzel James led MacEwan (1-3) in scoring, with Galvez finishing with a team-high 22 points and James adding 21 to go along with 10 rebounds for a double-double.

The Cougars improve to 2-2 on the season with the win and are now embroiled in a seven-way tie for sixth in the Canada West standings with a bevy of other .500 teams. The U of R will have a weekend off before returning to action against one of those .500 teams, as they'll play Trinity Western (2-2) on the road on Nov. 25 and Nov. 26.