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Strong defense leads Huskies to win over Cougars
Regina, SK - The Saskatchewan Huskies went on an early run in the first quarter and the hometown Regina Cougars never really recovered, as the Huskies went on to an 87-71 win on Saturday night in a Canada West men’s basketball game in front of over 2000 spectators at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
The Cougars led the game 7-6 at one point in the first quarter, but then went over seven minutes without scoring a point as the Huskies went on a 12-0 run, including 10 points in a row from freshman Nolan Brudehl.
Saskatchewan took a ten-point lead into halftime and pulled away from the Cougars with 28 points in the third quarter. They took a 67-47 lead into the final frame after Showron Glover's put-back at the buzzer to end the third quarter.
The Huskies have won four straight over the Cougars, and Saturday's victory was their first in four tries at the CKHS.
Glover, the conference’s leading scorer, quietly put up a game-high 28 points for the Huskies. Glover scored the majority of his points from the free throw line, going 16-for-23 from the stripe. Brudehl also had a big game for Saskatchewan, scoring 22 points - 14 of which came in the first quarter alone. He was 8-9 from the floor, and also had seven boards. The Huskies also had 15 points and seven rebounds from Troy Gottselig, while Michael Lieffers had a game-high 12 rebounds in just 18 minutes on the floor.
The Cougars were led by Jeff Lukomski’s 23 points. Lukomski was 5-for-14 from beyond the arc and also hit two of his three shots from inside the three-point line. Kris Heshka played just under 40 minutes and had ten points, nine rebounds, six blocks, and four steals, while Jamal Williams had 18 points before fouling out in the fourth quarter. At one point in the fourth, all five Cougar starters had four fouls.
Saskatchewan shot 61.5% from the field in the second half, and 44.3% for the game while holding Regina to 34.4% shooting for the night. Saskatchewan also won the battle on the boards, grabbing 48 rebounds to the Cougars' 33.
The Huskies (12-14, 7-9 Canada West) are now just one game shy of Alberta (8-8) for second place in the Central Division, as the Golden Bears were defeated by Brandon on Saturday night. Saskatchewan and Alberta will meet next week in a weekend series that will go a long ways towards deciding second place in the division.
The Cougars (11-12, 9-7) are now just one game ahead of Brandon (8-8). The Cougars will now prepare for a two-game weekend series against the Winnipeg Wesmen (3-13) in Winnipeg.
NOTES: The announced crowd of 2089 was the largest for a Canada West game this season... A couple of prominent former Huskie football players were in attendance. Current Saskatchewan Roughriders offensive lineman Gene Makowsky and former Rider receiver Dan Farthing were sitting courtside.
With files from Braden Konschuh, University of Regina Sports Information
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