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The University of Regina's women's basketball team closes out the first half of the Canada West schedule at home this weekend with games on Friday and Saturday against Saskatchewan. Game time is set for 6 p.m. both nights.
The No. 2-ranked Cougars are coming off a pair of road wins at Trinity Western last weekend, though they were two extremely different contests. The U of R had to hold off the Spartans for a 57-51 win on Friday night, but dominated on Saturday and picked up the weekend sweep with an 85-47 victory on Saturday.
Currently in fourth place in the Canada West standings, the Cougars are 17-1 overall and 5-1 in Canada West play this season. Their only blemish this season came three weekends ago in Edmonton, when they were surprised by MacEwan in a 73-72 win for the Griffins.
The Cougars have been playing without fifth-year forward
Charlotte Kot and rookie guard
Kyia Giles, both of whom were injured earlier this month. Since their bye week, the starting lineup has consisted of
Ainsley MacIntyre and
Christina McCusker up top with
Kyanna Giles,
Avery Pearce, and
Katie Polischuk in the backcourt.
Britton Belyk,
Angela Bongomin,
Sara Hubenig,
Michaela Kleisinger,
Alexi Rowden, and
Caitlin Zacharias have all been utilized off the bench by head coach
Dave Taylor.
Polischuk is the team's scoring leader, averaging 12.8 points per game and hitting 16 triples this season. She became the school's all-time leader in three-pointers late last year and enters the weekend with 199 in her career. Though only a rookie,
Kyanna Giles has made significant contributions already for the Cougars – she averages 9.2 points per game, leads the team in steals, and is second on the team in rebounding behind only McCusker.
The Cougars will be playing Saskatchewan for the second and third times this season, as the two squads met in early October at the CKHS in the non-conference Cougar Classic. Regina took that game by a 60-58 score.
Saskatchewan (3-3) was ranked in the U Sports Top Ten to start the year, but quickly fell out after opening the season with a road split to Fraser Valley and a pair of losses to league-leading Winnipeg. But the Huskies pulled back up to .500 for the season with two wins over Brandon, and currently sit in a four-way tie for seventh place in the Canada West standings.
Sabine Dukate missed the opening two games of the year against UFV, but is Saskatchewan's leader with an average of 14.8 points per game. Sascha Lichtenwald has only started three of six games for the Huskies, but is averaging 13 points per contest. Saskatchewan's floor general is rookie point guard Libby Epoch, who averages a team-leading 34.2 minutes played per game and is third on the team in scoring (8.5 points per game), second in rebounding (6.2 per game), and is first in assists (18).
This weekend will be the Cougars' last games until early January. They return to the Canada West schedule on Jan. 6 and Jan. 7 against UBC Okanagan in Kelowna, B.C.
