The University of Regina's women's basketball team will play on the consolation side of the CIS Championship after a tough 73-70 loss to Ryerson on Thursday night at the Richard J. Currie Center on the University of New Brunswick campus.

The Cougars never recovered from a 15-0 run by Ryerson over a three-minute span late in the third quarter. That put the Rams up by 13 heading into the fourth and though the Cougars went on an 11-4 run to start the quarter and made it a one-possession game late in the contest, they were never able to pull even with Ryerson. 

Regina had a chance to send it to tie it up at the buzzer, but a desperation turnaround heave by Sidney Dobner was no good and Ryerson walked away with the win.

"I thought we played hard, but we just gave them too much of a cushion," Cougars head coach Dave Taylor said. "We talked about taking the key away and if they shot the three well we were going to be in trouble, and that's exactly what happened tonight."

Named the CIS Player of the Year on Wednesday night, it was Ryerson's Keneca Pingue-Giles that did the most damage from the perimeter. She was 6-for-10 from three-point range and led all players with 29 points. Sofia Paska added 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Rams, while Silvana Jez added 12 points. As a team, Ryerson was 9-for-23 from three-point range.

Charlotte Kot led the Cougars with 18 points, with Kehlsie Crone adding 14 for the U of R - but perhaps Sara Hubenig was the biggest story for the No. 4-seeded Regina squad, as she came off the bench to score a season-high 12 points including two three-pointers while adding four rebounds and two assists in a spirited 24 minutes on the floor. Alyssia Kajati added 10 points, while Dobner finished with four points, seven rebounds, and five assists.

The Cougars will now play host New Brunswick on Friday night in a matchup that will feature Taylor coaching against Jeff Speedy's Varsity Reds squad. Speedy was the head coach at Regina for four seasons with Taylor on the staff as an assistant, going 54-26 in Canada West games over that time and bringing home a conference championship in 2004.

Regina and UNB will square off at 8 p.m. ADT, or 5 p.m. Saskatchewan time. The game will be webcast live at www.cis-sic.tv.