REGINA, Sask. – A 78-64 loss in their final regular season game wasn't the result the No. 2 ranked University of Saskatchewan Huskies women's basketball team was looking for, but despite the setback to the No. 9 Regina Cougars in Regina on Feb. 2, a strong campaign has earned them the right to home-court advantage throughout the Canada West playoffs.
Ending the season with a record of 16-4, the Huskies finished first in the conference in RPI, a mathematical formula used to seed the Canada West playoff teams due to an unbalanced regular season schedule.
The win, combined with UBC's overtime win at Alberta on Saturday, moves the Cougars up into the No. 3 spot in terms of conference RPI ranking.
The Cougars only trailed once, and that was for less than a minute midway through the first quarter. Regina led 18-11 after the first quarter, took a 33-28 lead into halftime, but came out of the break with a huge 11-0 run in the first two minutes of the second half. The Cougars hit threes on three consecutive possessions early in the third, the first by Michaela Kleisinger and the next two by Macaela Crone.
Regina led by double digits almost the entire rest of the game, and put a stranglehold on the contest with 10 straight points that put them up by 20 early in the fourth.
Crone finished with a huge double-double for the Cougars, scoring 18 points and leading all players with a career-high 14 rebounds. Kyanna Giles scored a team-high 19 points, while Kleisinger and Christina McCusker both finished with 12. McCusker, a fifth-year player in her final regular season home game, had a huge group of fans out to support her on Senior Night.
Libby Epoch was the only Saskatchewan player to hit double digits in scoring, finishing with a game-high 23 points in the setback. With Sabine Duakate and
Kyla Shand each chipping in nine points.
Regina finishes with a 17-3 record to match Calgary for tops in the conference, while Saskatchewan closes out conference play with a 16-4 mark.
Both teams will enjoy a bye through the first round of the playoffs before hosting a best-of-three quarterfinal series two weekends from now. Saskatchewan will host the lowest remaining seed of the four winners of the play-in round, while the Cougars will host the second-highest seeded winner.
