Heeg powers Lady Cougars to title defence
Mar. 5, 1990 - Regina Leader-Post
By Murray McCormick
Every championship team needs a player like Jenny Heeg.
She seems to come through with a superhuman effort just when the University of Regina Lady Cougars need it the most. In Saturday's 78-74 victory over the Winnipeg Lady Wesmen, Heeg did it again as the Lady Cougars won their second straight GPAC women's basketball title before approximately 850 spectators.
Regina, which swept the best-of-three conference final at the Physical Activity Centre, struggled through the opening 13 minutes. Then Heeg battled Winnipeg's Terri Martin for a loose ball at mid-court. Heeg pounced on the ball and flipped a pass to Jackie Moore, who was fouled while scoring the basket.
The basket didn't tie the score. In fact, the Lady Wesmen still led 29-20. What it did was shake the Lady Cougars out of their funk.
"That was the turning point of the game," said Debbie Patterson, head coach of the Lady Cougars. "Jenny went all out for the ball and it got everybody going. Jenny leads and the rest of us follow."
Regina advances to the CIAU championship tournament for the second consecutive season. The eight-team tournament starts on Thursday in Toronto. The championship final on Saturday is being televised by TSN at 6 p.m. CST.
The Calgary Dinosaurs, who extended their winning streak to 67 games by sweeping the Victoria Vikettes in best-of-three CWUAA final, are the top seed. The Lady Cougars, Bishop's, University of New Brunswick, and Laurentian have advanced as conference champions. The host Toronto Blues qualify as the OWIAA finalist. Regina will likely play UNB in its opening-round game on Thursday.
Two wild-card berths, presented to the highest-ranked non-conference champions, will be awarded today. Based on the latest set of CIAU rankings, fourth-ranked McMaster and fifth-ranked Victoria should receive invitations. Official seedings will also be announced today.
Heeg is used to boosting the Lady Cougars' spirits when they play Winnipeg. In two regular season games, including one that clinched the GPAC regular season title, Heeg scored the game-winning baskets after steals.
While Saturday's effort wasn't nearly as dramatic, Heeg's performance was just as effective.
"I knew we had to get our offence going again," said Heeg, who scored 11 points. "We were kind of stagnant for a while. Our defence was still pretty good and that got our offence going."
Regina, despite its troubles, only trailed Winnipeg 39-35 at the half. In the second half the Lady Cougars took control. Deanne Shmyr, who scored 28 points, drilled a three-point shot for the Lady Cougars that tied the score at 51-51 with 13 minutes left.
Two minutes later, Moore connected on two of her 19 points to put Regina in front 57-55. Regina outscored Winnipeg 15-8 over the next four minutes to pull away. Michelle Jonasson led the Lady Wesmen with 14 points.
"We ran our offence better in the second half," Moore said. "In the first half we were putting up shots after one or two passes. In the second half we moved the ball around better."
The Lady Cougars enjoyed Saturday's victory, but they don't plan on getting too caught up in the excitement of it. Regina's main goal is a victory in Saturday's CIAU championship final.
"We've played some of our best basketball of the year this weekend," Heeg said. "We feel confident going to the CIAUs."
NOTES: GPAC's four women coaches agreed to support a proposal to extend the regular season in 1990-91. The number of games and the format will be ironed out after the men's coaches meet in Winnipeg on the weekend. It appears the teams will play four to six more games ... former Lady Cougars head basketball coach Sheila Beckie will be honored with a special presentation for her contribution to CIAU women's basketball at the All-Canadian awards dinner on Wednesday in Toronto ... Patterson and Moore are Regina's leading candidates for individual honors at the banquet: Moore as player-of-the-year and Patterson, in her rookie season as head coach, as coach-of-the-year.
