The University of Regina's men's basketball team lost to the University of Winnipeg Wesmen 77-69 in overtime on Saturday night.
Winnipeg guard Don Dayrit was unstoppable all night, scoring a game-high 31 points on 11-of-24 shooting. Forward Spas Nikolov scored 14 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for the Wesmen.
Carter Millar got his second double-double of the young season, scoring a team-high 24 points and getting 12 rebounds for the Cougars.
In the first quarter, Regina roared out to an 18-4 lead in the opening four minutes. Winnipeg answered back with their own 10-4 run to make 21-14 for the Cougars after one. Regina guard
Benjamin Hillis scored nine points on 4-of-5 shooting.
The second quarter was a low scoring affair, with Winnipeg scoring 13 points and Regina getting 11. The defense tightened up as the two teams combined to shoot 1-of-9 from three. Dayrit scored his first five points of the game in the second to make it a 32-27 game for the Cougars at half.
Coming out of the break, Dayrit took over. He went 3-of-4 from three and scored 13 of his team's 20 third quarter points. Millar scored nine points in the frame to counter Dayrit's hot shooting. Dayrit scored on a buzzer-beater 3-pointer to close the gap to 51-47 Cougars going into the fourth.
Both teams fought back-and-forth in the final quarter, with the Cougars never pulling farther ahead than seven points. Winnipeg fought all the way back and led by three points with 3:02 left in the game. The two teams had two more lead changes before settling for 63 apiece and an overtime period for the second night in a row.
Regina scored the first three points of overtime but the Wesmen took over after that. They outscored the Cougars 14-3 the rest of the frame to take the victory and end the weekend series on a split. Dayrit continued to shoot the ball well in overtime with seven points on 3-of-5 shooting.
Hillis scored 19 points and added 10 rebounds for a double-double of his own for the Cougars. Forward
Arinze Emeka-Anyakwo scored 10 points and nabbed three steals in the loss.
The Cougars will travel to Saskatoon to take on the Huskies next Friday. The Wesmen head home to face their Winnipeg rivals the Manitoba Bisons in a home-and-home series next Friday and Saturday.
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