The University of Regina's men's basketball team lost to the University of Winnipeg Wesmen 74-64 on Friday night on the road in Winnipeg.
 
The Wesmen were led by Don Dayrit, who scored a game-high 23 points. He also grabbed five rebounds and dished out five assists. The Cougars had trouble shooting the ball, particularly from deep, going 7-of-32 from behind the arc as a team.
 
Both teams had trouble shooting the ball early, as they combined to go 2-of-17 from three in the first quarter. Matt Barnard hit a layup for the Cougars to give the team a 13-7 lead with 4:34 to left in the first quarter. That would be the last bucket of the quarter for the Cougars, as the Wesmen went on a 9-0 run the rest of the way to lead 16-13 after one.
 
The second quarter saw more offense as both teams shot better. The Cougars managed to pull ahead late in the second quarter, as a Josiah Thomas layup put them up 32-29 with 2:38 left in the half. Winnipeg answered back quickly as they closed the quarter on a 9-2 run to take a 38-34 lead into halftime.
 
The Wesmen extended their lead in the third quarter by continuing to score and playing solid defense on the Cougars. They held the Cougars to 13 points on 5-of-20 shooting, while Winnipeg went 6-of-12 from the field. They also hit 8-of-11 free throws to score 22 points in the third. They led 60-47 going into the final 10 minutes.
 
The Cougars tough night on offense continued into the fourth quarter as they went 1-for-7 from three. Regina also hit 6-of-11 free throws and could not get enough stops on defense. The lack of consistent offense prevented the Cougars from mounting a comeback in the final quarter as Winnipeg held on for the victory.
 
The Wesmen got contributions from Spas Nikolov (16 points, seven rebounds, two blocks), Malachi Alexander (12 points, six rebounds) and Shawn Maranan (seven points, seven rebounds, seven assists) in the win.
 
Arinze Emeka-Anyakwo scored a team-high 17 points for the Cougars, who went a perfect 6-of-6 from the field. The Cougars had other solid performances from Josiah Thomas (11 points, eight rebounds, three assists) and Carter Millar (10 points, seven rebounds, four assists).
 
The two teams will play each other again, tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. in Winnipeg.

 

Josiah Thomas hits a tough layup for 2! pic.twitter.com/cEEAiX3xSk

— U of R Cougars MBB (@cougsmbb) February 12, 2022