(By University of Regina Sports Information)

REGINA, Sask. - The University of Regina's men's basketball team completed a weekend sweep on Saturday night with an 82-69 victory over Trinity Western at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

One night after the Cougars registered their largest win in program history after taking out Trinity Western by a 111-65 score, it looked as though they might turn Saturday's game into a blowout as well. They jumped out to a 13-point lead in the first quarter, but the two teams played it pretty evenly the rest of the way.

The Cougars led 35-27 at halftime and Trinity Western was able to make it a two-possession game on a few separate occasions in the second half, but Regina was able to respond each time. The Spartans got to within five points four minutes into the third, but Carter Millar sparked a 9-0 run to get the lead right back up to 14 two minutes later. Trinity Western also threatened in the fourth, but twice the Cougars hit a big three immediately after the Spartans had cut the lead to six - one by Kameron Vales two minutes into the final period, and the other by Greishe Clerjuste with three minutes to go which put an end to an 8-0 TWU run.

"We knew tonight's game was going to be a completely different animal," Cougars head coach Steve Burrows said. "We expected Trinity to be much better and they were. We got off to a good start and it was nice to see a couple of our guys hit some big shots down the stretch."

Benjamin Hillis scored 14 points to lead the Cougars, while Clerjuste and Millar both ended up with 13. Samuel Hillis had the game's lone double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, while Vales finished with 10 points as five different U of R players hit double figures in scoring. Millar also finished with nine rebounds.

As he's done in each of Trinity Western's first four conference games of the year, Vartan Tanielian led the Spartans in scoring. He finished with 17 points, while Borja Soriano and Jack Nadelhoffer both scored 16. Now 0-4 to start the Canada West schedule, Trinity Western will try to put one in the win column next weekend as the Spartans play host to Mount Royal (1-3) on Friday and Saturday.

The Cougars (2-2) are back on the road next weekend for a pair of games against a Brandon team which will come in with a 1-3 record. Brandon started out the year with a home split against Manitoba, but lost two tight road games to UBC Okanagan this weekend.