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Fresh off its fourth split in five Canada West weekends so far, the University of Regina's men's basketball team hosts Manitoba this Friday and Saturday at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
 
The Cougars took an 83-79 win last Friday over UBC Okanagan in Kelowna, but couldn't overcome a slow start on Saturday and fell 79-70 to the Heat. The Cougars are now 6-4 and tied with Saskatchewan for sixth place in the jam-packed Canada West standings at the midpoint of the conference schedule.
 
Regina has rolled with the same starting five of Alex Igual, Aaron McGowan, Brian Ofori, Travis Sylvestre, and Brandon Tull all year with the exception of last Friday's game when second-year guard Samuel Hillis drew in for his first career start in place of McGowan. McGowan returned to the starting lineup the next night and played less than a minute before missing the rest of the game due to injury, but is expected to be back this weekend.
 
Igual leads the team in scoring with an average of 15.2 points per game and is shooting a team-leading 41.9% from three-point range. Tull checks in as 12.4 points per game and leads the Cougars with 22 steals, while Ofori averages 11.4 points and a team-leading 5.6 rebounds per contest. McGowan has a team-high 32 assists on the season.
 
Leading the Cougars off the bench is Johneil Johnson, one of the top rookies in Canada West. Johnson ranks second among all first-year Canada West players with an average of 11.4 points per game, just a shade behind Winnipeg's Narcisse Ambanza. Samuel Hillis, Stephen Shields, and Benjamin Hillis all average at least 10 minutes a game for the U of R, though Shields missed the UBC Okanagan series due to injury.
 
Manitoba (4-6) is playing its first Canada West games since sweeping Winnipeg in a home-and-home in early December, though the Bisons were in action two weekends ago at the Wesmen Classic at the University of Winnipeg. And they defended their championship at the eight-team non-conference tournament, defeating the Cougars, host Winnipeg, and Alberta with Keith Omoerah earning MVP honours.
 
Omoerah, a fourth-year guard, is Manitoba's leading scorer with 16.1 points per game. Justus Alleyn (15.0 points per game), A.J. Basi (13.3), and Ilarion Bonhomme (12.5) also average in double figures in scoring for the Bisons.
 
Both games this weekend have an 8 p.m. scheduled start time.