QUICKLY
The University of Regina's men's basketball team officially locked up a postseason spot on Friday night with a 76-61 home victory over Mount Royal at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Cougars made a statement by scoring the opening eight points of the game and led from wire to wire. Regina sprinted out to a 26-13 lead after the opening quarter, and though MRU got to within seven points early in the second the Cougars immediately replied with an 11-0 run and a Cade Mather triple at the buzzer put the home team up 51-28 at the half.
- Regina continued to pour it on in the second half, leading by as many as 33 points midway through the fourth quarter before Mount Royal closed the game on a 15-0 run to cut the U of R's margin of victory to just 15.
NOTES
- Lodie Kenyi had the game's lone double-double, scoring 13 points and dominating the boards with a 14-rebound performance while also adding a team-high 5 assists.
- Arinze Emeka-Anyakwo and Nick Barnard led the Cougars in scoring with 18 points and 17 points, respectively.
- The Cougars are now 11-2 in conference play. Their .846 winning percentage is the best in Canada West, ahead of a three-way tie for second place involving Brandon, Calgary, and Manitoba all at 11-4.
POSTSEASON LOOK
- Canada West's top 12 teams in terms of winning percentage will advance to the conference tournament, which will be hosted by the University of Manitoba from Feb. 21 through Feb. 25.
- Those 12 teams will be seeded by RPI, and by that metric the Cougars headed into Friday night's games ranked second behind only Calgary. Receiving the No. 2 seed would give the Cougars a bye into the quarterfinals, where they'd play the winner of an opening-round game between the No. 7 seed and the No. 10 seed.
NEXT UP
The Cougars will close out their weekend series against Mount Royal on Saturday night at the CKHS. Game time is set for 8:00 PM following the conclusion of the women's game.
