The University of Regina's men's basketball team took control with a monumental third quarter before nearly giving it away in the fourth, but the Cougars held on for a 96-87 road win over Winnipeg on Friday at the Duckworth Centre.

The Cougars faced a six-point halftime deficit, but put together one of the most impressive 10 minutes in recent history after the break. Regina outscored Winnipeg 36-9 in the third quarter as Carter Millar caught fire, hitting three three-pointers and scoring 11 of his career-high 25 points in the third.

Winnipeg wasn't nearly finished, though. The Wesmen reeled off a 14-2 run of their own to get the lead back into single-digit territory, and then Winnipeg scored eight straight points – a run which included a pair of Narcisse Ambanza triples – to get within three.

But on the next possession, the Cougars got a huge three-point play by Millar with 40 seconds to go. The visitors got a stop defensively, then another three-point play by Myles Hamilton put the game out of reach.

"Clearly we were able to get some momentum going in the third and we were able to ride that out, but it's probably a good thing the game ended when it did or else it might have been a different result," Cougars head coach Steve Burrows said. "I'm real happy for (Millar). It's his best game to this point, and this is a direct result of all the work he put in to come back from his injury."

Millar's 25 points led all players as the second-year forward was 9-for-15 from the field including a perfect 4-for-4 from three-point range. Hamilton also eclipsed the 20-point barrier, going 9-for-11 from the field and scoring 22 for the Cougars. Greishe Clerjuste added 18 points in the win, while Benjamin Hillis finished with eight points, seven assists, five rebounds, and four steals.

Winners of five consecutive games, the Cougars improve to 13-4 on the season as they continue to jockey for position in the Canada West standings. Regina continues to sit No. 5 in terms of RPI, which will be used to seed the conference's 12 postseason teams.

Winnipeg (11-6) had a pair of 20-point scorers itself as Ambanza finished with 23 and Joseph Medrano scored 20. Like the Cougars, Winnipeg has a playoff berth all locked up and the Wesmen are very much in the running to host a play-in game to open the Canada West postseason.

The two teams will finish off the weekend set on Saturday night (5:00) at the Duckworth Centre.