Alyssa Etsell, Bisons Athletics
WINNIPEG — After a high-action third quarter, Regina Cougars maintained lead to win 72-69 Saturday, Nov. 4 at Investors Group Athletic Centre against home team Manitoba Bisons.
Manitoba played a strong game in the second and third quarters to keep Regina fighting to uphold a lead. Bisons Tiara Licsi scored a three-pointer from the corner of the court and opened the scoring in the third, igniting strong back-and-forth scoring for the rest of the third quarter.
"Obviously [we played] a lot better than last night. Really excited that we finally played like I think we can. We got 40 minutes of consistent play other than a little bit of a slow start again," said head coach Michele Sung.
After gaining a shallow lead in the first, Cougar energy waned in the 2nd allowing the Bisons to outscore them 17-12. Scoring efficiency in the second was 43.8% for Manitoba against the Cougars 33.3%.
Score was 39-31 going into the third for Regina—a much closer game than Friday night.
Manitoba amped up the energy in the third, briefly pulling ahead of the Cougars later in the third.
The first half of fourth quarter remained a steady back-and-forth between the two teams. Cougars barely maintained a 2-point lead for most of the quarter.
Cougar #9 Kyanna Giles, an important scorer in the game so far, went off the court with an injury at five minutes left in fourth.
With three minutes left in the game, Cougars were able to pull ahead and keep it going for the rest of the game to win.
Bisons will host MacEwan next, while the Cougars will return home to play UFV — both next weekend, Nov. 10 & 11.