The University of Regina's men's basketball team finished tantalizingly close to a home game to start off the Canada West postseason, but instead the Cougars go into the playoffs as the No. 9 seed and will travel for a play-in game against Lethbridge on Friday night.

The Cougars finished the 20-game Canada West schedule with a .5239 RPI, just below the .5247 posted by Lethbridge that was good enough to get the Pronghorns the No. 8 seed and the right to host in the first round. The two teams played just last month in Lethbridge, with the Pronghorns collecting a 110-92 win on Jan. 3 and the Cougars replying with a 99-94 victory the following night.

GAME INFORMATION
DATE: Friday, Feb. 14
TIME: 8:00 PM (MST)
LOCATION: 1st Choice Savings Centre (Lethbridge, Alta.)

LIVE COVERAGE
CanadaWest.tv [link]
Live Stats [link]

COACH BURROWS ON LETHBRIDGE
"Well, we gave up over 200 points in the two games we played there last month," Cougars head coach Steve Burrows said when asked what the keys to victory were going to be for the winner-takes-all game. "They're a very balanced team offensively with many different guys that can hurt you from night to night. They have a good balance of perimeter scorers as well as some bigs which makes them difficult to guard. It'll definitely be a good challenge for us."

KEY PLAYERS
Carter Millar was having an all-star calibre season before going down to injury against Brandon last month. He was averaging a double-double for the Cougars with 19.3 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, but remains questionable after missing the team's final six Canada West games. Greishe Clerjuste and Samuel Hillis are the U of R's two fifth-year veterans. Clerjuste averages 12.7 points per game, while Hillis is third on the team with 10.8 points per game and also second behind Millar in rebounding with 6.0 per contest.

Burrows wasn't exaggerating when he said Lethbridge was balanced offensively as the Pronghorns had six players average in double figures during Canada West play. Third-year forward Chad Oviatt led the Pronghorns in several major categories including points per game (15.6), rebounds per game (7.5), steals (38), and blocks (24) while Colton Gibb was second in scoring (14.6 points per game) and rebounding (6.2 rebounds per game).

COUGARS/PRONGHORNS SERIES
The two teams are meeting in the postseason for the second time in the last three seasons, as Lethbridge won a best-of-three quarterfinal series in 2018 on home court in two straight games. Those are the only two playoff games that the Cougars and Pronghorns have ever played entering Friday's game, while Lethbridge holds a 20-15 advantage in the 35 regular season games between the two teams. Lethbridge is also 17-4 against the Cougars at home including those quarterfinal wins two seasons ago.

THE BRACKET
The new Canada West postseason format sees a revamped format for the quarterfinals and semifinals. The winners of the four play-in games will advance to one of two four-team pods, one hosted by top-seeded Alberta and the other by No. 2 seed Calgary. The four play-in winners are reseeded for the quarterfinal round, which means next weekend's destination for the Regina/Lethbridge winner depends on the results of the other three play-in games.