SASKATOON – Lawrence Moore and Alexander Dewar combined for 50 points as the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men's basketball team pulled away for a 99-68 victory over the Regina Cougars inside the PAC on February 14.
 
The Huskies took the lead early and never gave it up, en route to the 31-point victory in the first game of the teams best-of-three Canada West quarter-final series.
 
Paced by the fifth-year Moore and the rookie Dewar, the Huskies finished the game shooting 45. 1 per cent from the floor while simultaneously holding Regina to just 35. 6 per cent, nearly 10 per cent below their season average.
 
"We are obviously pleased with the way we played in a number of ways but the reality is that the spread of the score is not indicative of how close the game actually was, it was pretty well contested for three quarters," said Huskies head coach Barry Rawlyk. "At the end of the day we got some stops defensively when we needed to and that decided the outcome of the game."
 
Saskatchewan also held a large advantage on the boards, winning the rebound battle by a tally of 41-27.
 
Moore and Dewar each scored 25 points in the game, with Moore also adding nine rebounds and five assists in the victory. Dewar in his first-ever Canada West playoff action went 10-of-16 from the floor in the game.
 
"We've got a lot of guys that are capable on any night and Alex was solid tonight," said Rawklyk. "He was very decisive in attacking the basket, hit some shots and was really level tonight."
 
Regina was paced by Carter Millar, with the second-year forward finishing just one rebound shy of the double-double with 16 points and nine rebounds. Also chipping in was Samuel Hillis who was good for 14 points and six boards in his 28 minutes on the floor.
 
Chan De Ciman had seven points in the first quarter and the Huskies defence held the Cougars to just 5-of-18 from the floor as the home team jumped out to the 21-13 lead after the first quarter.
 
A back-and-forth second frame saw the Huskies have an answer any time the Cougars bit too far into their lead and the teams entered the break with Saskatchewan leading by ten.
 
Regina played by far their best basketball offensively in the third quarter and cut the lead down to three on a number of occasions, but the Huskies ended the frame on an 11-2 run to give them a 64-50 lead after three quarters.
 
Any hope of a comeback for the Cougars was snuffed out midway through the fourth thanks to a Huskies run of 12-3 that included baskets from six different members of the home team.
 
"We just wanted to play 40 minutes of good basketball, we've run into problems at times this season where we've had lapses for 5 or 10 minutes and if you do that in this conference you are setting yourself up for failure," said Rawlyk.
 
Game two of the best-of-three series is scheduled to get underway tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. inside the PAC and can be watched live on canadawest.tv.