TEAM OVERVIEWS
REGINA – After a split with Brandon last weekend, the Cougars now have a 9-7 conference record and continue to hold down the fifth-best RPI in Canada West. Head coach Steve Burrows will generally go with an eight-man rotation featuring Shawn Lathan, Alex Igual, Brandon Tull, Benjamin Hillis, and Brian Ofori in the starting lineup and Samuel Hillis, Shaquille Harris, and Brayden Kuski featuring prominently off the bench. Ofori had a massive weekend against the Bobcats, earning Canada West Third Star of the Week honours after piling up 52 points and 19 rebounds in the two games. Kuski has seen a sharp increase in playing time over the past three games, and the first-year guard responded with a career-high 19 points in last Friday's game. After this weekend, the Cougars will close out the Canada West regular season with a pair of road games against Saskatchewan.
 
WINNIPEG – Things looked bleak for the Wesmen after they went into the December break at 3-9, but Winnipeg has turned a corner since. They've won four consecutive games, sweeping Brandon in a home-and-home on the Jan. 5/6 weekend and then doing the same thing to Manitoba last weekend. Winnipeg leads the conference in three-pointers attempted and the Wesmen have several weapons capable of doing significant damage – just in the past four games Narcisse Ambanza has had a 36-point effort, Denzel Lynch-Blair put up a 31-point night, Sean Tarver has had 29-point and 27-point outings, and Billy Yaworski had a 24-point game. After this weekend's series against the Cougars, Winnipeg will head back home to host UBC Okanagan (2-14) to finish off the conference schedule.

PROJECTED STARTERS

Winnipeg	Regina
#0 Sean Tarver (F • 6-4 • 4th) #1 Denzel Lynch-Blair (G • 6-4 • 4th) #3 Narcisse Ambanza (G • 6-2 • 2nd) #7 Billy Yaworsky (F • 6-7 • 3rd) #11 William Sesay (G • 6-3 • 3rd)	#1 Shawn Lathan (F • 6-4, 205 • 4th) #4 Alex Igual (G • 6-4, 215 • 5th) #5 Brandon Tull (G • 6-4, 190 • 5th) #8 Benjamin Hillis (G • 6-3, 155 • 2nd) #11 Brian Ofori (F • 6-6, 215 • 5th)

FIFTH-YEAR NIGHT
The Cougars will honour a trio of fifth-year players on Saturday that will be playing in their final conference home game, including Brandon Tull who played all five seasons at the U of R. Alex Igual and Brian Ofori are also in their final seasons of U SPORTS eligibility after joining the Cougars program in 2014. Both players sat out the 2014-15 season – Igual after being injured early in the year and Ofori as a redshirt after transferring from UPEI – and have played in each of the past three years for Regina.

POSTSEASON UPDATE
Nine wins could be enough to get into the Canada West postseason this year and that's how many Regina currently has, but the Cougars will have loftier goals for their final four conference games of the season. They'll enter this weekend's games ranked fifth in the conference in RPI, but are within striking distance of fourth-place Lethbridge – and with the top four teams in Canada West receiving a bye through the first round of the playoffs and a home date in the conference quarterfinals, catching the Pronghorns would provide a nice boost to the U of R's chances of advancing deep into the postseason.

SERIES NOTES
Regina and Winnipeg played a pair of close late-season games last year in Winnipeg, both of which went to the Wesmen. Winnipeg won 102-93 on Feb. 3 of last year, then won 87-81 the following night to complete the weekend sweep. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Cougars have played Winnipeg – their former rival from the old Great Plains Athletic Conference – more than any other opponent. Winnipeg has a 105-65 advantage in the 170 conference games these two teams have played against each other, while the Cougars have a 19-11 edge in the postseason.
 
QUOTABLE: COACH BURROWS
Keys to the weekend – "Our No. 1 priority this weekend is to defend in transition, and we'll also have to concentrate on guarding the perimeter. Winnipeg's entire lineup can shoot the three, and how well we defend that will play a large part in dictating how much success we have against them this weekend."