The University of Regina's women's basketball team narrowly missed out on a weekend sweep on Saturday night after suffering an 87-82 loss to Saskatchewan at the Physical Activity Centre in Saskatoon.
 
After locking up the No. 1 seed in the postseason with a win over the Huskies on Friday, head coach Dave Taylor elected to rest four key contributors for Saturday's game. Charlotte Kot, Kyanna Giles, Kyia Giles, and Christina McCusker were all given the day off, with Taylor electing to go with a starting five of Avery Pearce, Sara Hubenig, Carolina Goncalves, Alexi Rowden, and Caitlin Zacharias.
 
And despite the makeshift lineup, the Cougars took the No. 7-ranked Huskies right down to the wire.
 
It wasn't until a three-pointer by Megan Lindquist with 30 seconds to go and an offensive rebound by Lindquist following a missed free throw that Saskatchewan was able to put the game away.
 
The Huskies had gone up by nine on two occasions, once in the second quarter and once in the third, but both times Regina answered back. The third-quarter reply by the Cougars was in the form of a 10-0 run that included a pair of huge Britton Belyk triples, giving the U of R its first lead since the opening minutes of the game. Regina had to fight back again in the fourth after Saskatchewan had gone up by seven, using an 11-4 run capped by three-pointers on back-to-back possessions by Hubenig and Goncalves that tied up the game with two minutes to go.
 
Sabine Dukate led Saskatchewan with 28 points, Summer Masikewich scored 23, and Lindquist finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds for the game's lone double-double.
 
Goncalves had a team-leading 23 points for Regina while four other players also hit double figures in points. Hubenig had 15 points to go along with five assists, Saskatoon product Lauryn Prokop scored 12 in just 14 minutes off the bench, Belyk finished with 11 points, and Zacharias finished with 10 points while pulling down a team-high seven rebounds.
 
The Cougars finish the Canada West schedule in first place with an 18-2 record and also claim the No. 1 seed in the postseason based on their .6472 RPI. Next up for the Cougars will be a best-of-three Canada West quarterfinal series beginning Thursday, Feb. 15 at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport. They'll find out their opponent for that series after this week's conference play-in games.
 
NOTES: Regina will play one of UBC, Lethbridge, UNBC, Manitoba, or UFV in the quarterfinals ... if the Cougars win that series, they'll advance to the Canada West semifinals and host that best-of-three series at the CKHS beginning Thursday, Feb. 22 ...  if they win that, the Cougars will host the Canada West championship game on Friday, Mar. 1 ... all postseason games will have a 7:00 PM start time.