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Looking to secure a berth in the Canada West playoffs, the University of Regina's men's basketball team closes out the conference schedule this weekend against Thompson Rivers at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
Both the Cougars (7-11) and Thompson Rivers (8-10) are among seven teams still in contention for the final five playoff spots. Fraser Valley (9-9), Mount Royal (8-10), MacEwan (7-11), and Victoria (7-11) are all in action this weekend looking for wins to lock in a playoff spot, while Brandon (9-11) is the only team in Canada West already finished conference play and is in a good tiebreaking position with the ninth-best RPI after last weekend's games.
For the U of R, tiebreaking situations can be all but avoided if the Cougars take care of business this weekend on home court. Two wins would almost certainly put the U of R into the playoffs, while a split would mean that the Cougars would need some massive help on the out-of-town scoreboard – most notably in the form of a Winnipeg road sweep over Victoria or a Manitoba sweep over Mount Royal.
The Cougars are coming off of two tough road losses to Winnipeg last weekend, which saw them bring leads into the fourth quarter on both nights only to have the Wesmen come back for victories on both nights, winning 102-93 on Friday and 87-81 on Saturday.
Head coach
Steve Burrows has rolled with the same starting five for three straight games now, consisting of
Alex Igual,
Brandon Tull,
Travis Sylvestre, rookie
Benjamin Hillis, and
Brian Ofori. Ofori has been on a tear in those three games, averaging over 17 points and eight rebounds per game and shooting 61% from the field, including 7-for-8 from three-point range.
Johneil Johnson and
Samuel Hillis have played major roles off the bench in recent games, with
Matthew Augustine and
Carter Millar also seeing consistent playing time for the U of R.
Thompson Rivers, which will likely only need one win this weekend to clinch a playoff spot, is led by Canada West all-star Volodymyr Iegorov. The 6-7, 240 lb. fifth-year forward averages 18.8 points and 8.9 rebounds per game, also leads the WolfPack in assists (68), blocks (25), and steals (20), and plays both inside and out as he's hit 26 three-pointers this season.
Game time is set for 8 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday at the CKHS.
NOTES: Though the teams will be playing their first Canada West games against each other since 2012, they did meet last season in a Canada West quarterfinal series in Kamloops ... Thompson Rivers won that series 2-1 to advance to the Canada West Final Four ... the Cougars hold a 6-5 advantage in the 11 Canada West games they've played since TRU ascended to the U SPORTS level prior to the 2005-06 season.
