Series ScheduleGame 1 - Friday, Feb. 26 (7:00)
Game 2 - Saturday, Feb. 27 (7:00)
Game 3 - if necessary - Sunday, Feb. 28 (7:00)Video WebcastLive StatisticsThe University of Regina's men's basketball team will host the Winnipeg Wesmen this weekend in a best-of-three Canada West play-in series at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
Game 1 and Game 2 are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, with Game 3 to be played on Sunday if a deciding contest is needed. Start time is scheduled for 7 p.m. each night, with the winner of the series advancing to the conference quarterfinals to meet Explorer Division champion Thompson Rivers for the right to advance to the Canada West Final Four.
For the Cougars, it'll be their first home postseason series since hosting Winnipeg in the 2009 Great Plains Division semifinals. That actually marked the fifth consecutive year that Regina hosted the Wesmen in the postseason, making this upcoming weekend the sixth straight home series the Cougars have faced Winnipeg. You'd have to go all the way back to 2003 – when Cougar rookie
Samuel Hillis was in Grade 1 – for the last time the Cougars hosted anyone besides Winnipeg in the playoffs, as the U of R swept Brandon that year to qualify for the program's first Canada West Final Four.
The two teams faced each other twice this season – also in Regina – with the Cougars taking both of those December games by scores of 82-72 and 82-62. The Wesmen had a 9-5 record after winning all six of their games in January, but finished at 10-10 after going 1-5 through a stretch in February that saw them play three of the top four teams in the Pioneer Division.
"They're very similar to us, actually, with two dynamic scorers," Cougars head coach
Steve Burrows said. "They play good defence in the quarter court and are extremely dangerous in transition. We have to manage the basketball this weekend and if we can continue with some consistent defensive efforts, I think we'll have a good chance."
After last week's split with Saskatchewan, the Cougars finished in fifth place in the Pioneer Division with an 11-9 conference record. They've settled into an eight-man rotation, with a starting five consisting of
Alex Igual,
Brandon Tull, and
Jonathan Tull in the backcourt with
Stephen Shields and
Will Tallman starting down low.
Aaron McGowan,
Brian Ofori, and
Travis Sylvestre all play important roles off the bench for the Cougars, with the contributions of McGowan and Sylvestre especially crucial in last Saturday's win over the Huskies. Hillis also saw time in 18 of 20 Canada West games, while Burrows also expects to have
Mike Malecha back in the lineup this weekend as well.
Winnipeg head coach Mike Raimbault leans heavily on his starting five, with Denzel Lynch-Blair and Jelane Pryce as the team's leading scorers. Lynch-Blair led the Wesmen in scoring with an average of 17.5 points per game, while Pryce averaged 15.2 per contest. Jamar Farley, William Sesay, and Ryan Oirbans round out Winnipeg's usual starting five, with Marcello Kambola, Denzel Soliven, and Nathaniel Johnson each averaging in excess of 10 minutes per game for the Wesmen.
After this weekend, the winning team will have a short turnaround before travelling to Kamloops, B.C. for the Thompson Rivers series. That best-of-three quarterfinal will begin next Thursday.
NOTES: The only team Regina has faced more in the postseason than Winnipeg is Brandon ... coming into the weekend, the Cougars have won 17 of the 27 playoff meetings between the two teams ... 22 of those 27 postseason meetings have been in Regina, with the Cougars holding a 17-5 advantage in those games.
