The Golden Bears blew the game open with an 11-0 run early in the third quarter and took advantage of Regina's inability to deal with their full court pressure and foul trouble for Cougars key bigs to win the first of two weekend games in Edmonton. 6'4" Daniel Ferguson help key the game-deciding run at the top of Alberta's press, forcing a pair of steals and 6'8" Jordan Baker had 5 consecutive points in the run including a three. Ferguson, who leads CW in scoring at 24.1 ppg, finished with 30 points including 18 in the second half while Baker, a lefty sophomore, added another double double with 21 points and 12 rebounds. 6'2" Kenny Otieno added 13 points and was tremendous all evening pressuring the basketball defensively.
The Bears forced 35 turnovers in total from the Cougars including 19 combined from Regina's guard tandem of 6'0" Darius Mole and 6'1" Jeff Lukomski.
Despite having to play without 6'7" Kris Heshka and 6'7" Paul Gareau for much of the first half (both had to sit with 3 fouls apiece), the Cougars stayed in the game on the fine play of 6'6" fifth-year forward Marek Downarowicz (18 points off the bench) and sharpshooting Lukomski (14 points). With Regina leading 42-41 midway in the second, the Golden Bears finished the half on a 14-4 run to lead 55-46 at halftime.
Regina then scored the first 5 points of the third quarter, highlighted a dunk by Gareau when he beat his man on a backdoor cut and finished with a slick slam, and suddenly the Cougars were within 4 at 55-51. The Golden Bears then got a big 3 from Baker when the Cougars decided to go underneath a ball screen and on the subsequent Regina possession, Ferguson deflected a pass, creating a turnover that led to a C.G. Morrison jumper off the glass and the momentum changed there.
Later, Gareau, who along with Heshka were very difficult to stop inside when they were on the floor (combined 12 for 14 from the floor), was called for a questionable charging call in traffic for his fourth foul and the usually mild-mannered Regina coach James Hillis apparently had enough as his ensuing argument of the call resulted in a second technical and ejection from the contest late in the third quarter.
Gareau added 17 points and six boards for Regina while Heshka chipped in with 10 in just 19 minutes.
The teams meet again tonight at 8 PM MT in a game available on SSN Canada hosted by the U of A and in my opinion one of the best produced and presented video webcasts in the CIS.
Box Score
#7 Trinity Western 92 Fraser Valley 73... A 30-9 second quarter run blew the game wide open early and the Spartans led by 30 after three quarters at home in Langley to win their 9th consecutive contest, hammering the Cascades. UFV scored only 43 points in the first three quarters of the game.
Tyrell Mara led six TWU double figures scorers with 17 points while brother Eli had 16, Calvin Westbrook and Jacob Doerksen each had 15. Mara also had a game-high nine rebounds. For Fraser Valley, freshman Ryan Fahandeg finished with a game-high 21 points while Sheldon Bjorgaard and James Elliott each had 12 points. Sophomore Joel Freisen was held to 0-8 shooting and finished with just 2 points.
The teams square off in a rematch Saturday at 7:00 PM ET in what will be both teams final game of the fall semester.
Box Score
1 comment:
Yet another feeble road performance for the Cougars.
It's become almost laughable to see the difference between Regina at home and on the road.
Of course on the road the Cougars have to actually play five on five basketball...you know, without the help of their three friends in stripe shirts at home.
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