The University of Regina's men's basketball team trailed by 22 at one point late in the first half, but the Cougars came all the way back to defeat Thompson Rivers by an 88-87 score on Friday night in an epic Canada West game at the Tournament Capital Centre.
The Cougars scored the game-winning bucket with just eight seconds to go when
Kameron Vales found
Samuel Hillis on a fast break to put the visitors up by one.
Thompson Rivers had a chance to win it at the buzzer but after
Benjamin Hillis knocked away an attempted pass into the post, the WolfPack's Derek Rhodes couldn't get a tough turnaround jumper to fall.
"TRU was really good early and very efficient offensively, but our guys hung in there and gave themselves a chance," Cougars head coach
Steve Burrows said. "We managed to turn them over a few times in the second half which gave us some extra opportunities and we were able to take advantage of a few of those opportunities."
The game was sent into overtime thanks to some late heroics from Vales, who took an inbounds pass from
Benjamin Hillis and drilled a heavily contested off-balance triple with just under 16 seconds to go. Vales' three capped a 9-1 run by the Cougars, as they held Thompson Rivers without a field goal for the final two and a half minutes of regulation and erased what had been a late eight-point lead for the WolfPack.
"Kam's shot looked tough when I saw it live and it looked damned near impossible when I saw it on video," Burrows said. "He's a great shooter and he got that one to go when we needed it the most."
The win – coupled with Mount Royal's home loss to Saskatchewan – clinches a playoff berth for the Cougars as they'll head to the postseason for the fourth consecutive year. Now 11-4 on the season, Regina is now in sole possession of fourth place in the Canada West standings.
Samuel Hillis led the Cougars in both scoring and rebounding, finishing with 17 points and 10 boards as the fourth-year guard picks up his fifth double-double of the Canada West schedule. Vales finished with 15 points, while
Myles Hamilton and
Nick Barnard both finished with 14 points.
Thompson Rivers, which only played seven players and used a six-man rotation for most of the night, was led by Rhodes' 23 points – 20 of which came in the first half alone. Joe Davis (17 points, 12 rebounds) and Michael Rouault (14 points, 12 rebounds) both had double-doubles for TRU, which falls to 6-9 on the season with the setback.
The two teams will meet again on Saturday night (7:00 PST) at the Tournament Capital Centre.
NOTES: The Cougars lost the services of starting guard
Greishe Clerjuste, as he left the game with what appeared to be a lower-body injury midway through the third ... Friday's game marked the first time since the 2012-13 season that the two teams played a league game in Kamloops, though they did collide in a best-of-three quarterfinal series there back in 2016 ... the Cougars are now 9-5 against TRU in Canada West games and 4-3 against the WolfPack in Kamloops, not including the postseason ... ... of the three Canada West games that have gone to overtime during Burrows' tenure at the U of R, two of them have been against TRU ... the Cougars and TRU also played an extra session on Jan. 9, 2014 with the WolfPack winning that one 100-95 in Regina ... the only other conference game to go to overtime since Burrows took over starting in 2013 was a 90-88 loss to Manitoba back on Nov. 8, 2014 in Regina.
