The University of Regina's men's basketball team ended up with a weekend split after outlasting Lethbridge for a 99-94 victory on Saturday night at the 1st Choice Savings Centre in Lethbridge.
It was a one-possession game for almost all of the final two and a half minutes, but the momentum swung in Regina's favour shortly after Colton Gibb gave Lethbridge a 94-93 lead with 24 seconds to go.
On an inbounds play following a timeout, two Lethbridge defenders got caught chasing
Brayden Kuski on a baseline cut. That left
Carter Millar wide open and as he went for an easy layup, he was caught from behind and the Pronghorns were whistled for an intentional foul. Millar hit both free throws, and after the Cougars got possession back Millar was fouled again and hit two more.
The four-point possession put Regina up 97-94, and after the Cougars got a defensive stop they sealed their fifth conference win of the season with a pair of free throws by
Arinze Emeka-Anyakwo.
Millar finished as the U of R's leading scorer with 24 points and also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, while
Benjamin Hillis and Kuski both collected 18 points.
Kyle Peterson scored a game-high 26 points for Lethbridge, which falls to 4-8 on the season.
Saturday's game saw a total of 15 lead changes including the two in the final 30 seconds of the contest. Most of the team statistics were close to equal, including turnovers (21 for Regina and 19 for Lethbridge), rebounding (40-37 edge for Regina), and shooting (49% for Regina, 48% for Lethbridge).
The Cougars (5-7) currently rank ninth in Canada West in RPI, which will again be used to seed the conference's 12 postseason teams at the end of the regular season. They'll return to the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport next weekend for their first home games of the calendar year, as Regina will host a Brandon team that's 1-9 on the season.
Game times are set for 8:00 PM next Friday and Saturday at the CKHS.
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