Aaron McGowan (pictured) piled up a season-high 28 points, but the University of Regina's men's basketball team lost 90-85 to Thompson Rivers on Friday night at the Tournament Capital Centre in Game 2 of a best-of-three Canada West quarterfinal series.
The two teams will now play a third and deciding game on Saturday night with the winner to advance to the Canada West Final Four.
The two teams were never separated by more than five points in the fourth quarter, and in the final minute it was six consecutive points by Volodymyr Iegorov that sealed the win for the WolfPack - the first four on free throws, and the final two on a breakaway dunk that made it a two-possession game with under 10 seconds to go.
Iegorov led all players with 32 points, while Josh Wolfram had 18 points, 14 rebounds, and seven assists as he flirted with a triple-double. Reese Pribilsky added 16 points and nine assists for TRU, while Luke Morris came off the bench to score 14 in 19 minutes played.
McGowan was 9-for-17 from the field and also had six rebounds and four assists to go along with his 28 points.
Brandon Tull hit four triples for the second consecutive night and finished with 14 points, while
Will Tallman scored 12 and
Alex Igual added 11 points.
Anyone who turned off the game after the first quarter might have been surprised at the tight finish. The Cougars came out looking like one might expect a team playing its fifth game in eight nights to look, as Thompson Rivers opened up a 26-8 lead with a minute to go in the opening period.
But the Cougars have made comebacks a habit this postseason, and Friday was no different as the visitors reeled off a 17-2 run over three and a half minutes to turn a 17-point TRU lead into just a two-point WolfPack advantage. The Cougars hit four triples during that run, including two by Tull and one apiece by Igual and Tallman. McGowan added another three at the halftime buzzer to get the Cougars to within one at 42-41 at the break, and TRU led 62-58 after three.
In the fourth, the Cougars took their first lead of the game on a McGowan three-pointer midway through the period, and regained the lead on another McGowan basket with 2:40 left that put the U of R up 78-77.
But that would be the final lead of the game for the Cougars, as Thompson Rivers scored the next five points - two on a pair of Jeff Tubbs free throws and three more on a big triple by Morris with just under a minute to go - and the WolfPack were able to put away the win with the help of Iegorov's steady play in the final minute.
Saturday's game is set for a 7 p.m. (PST) start time.
