(By University of Regina Sports Information)

REGINA, Sask. – The hot-shooting Trinity Western Spartans went on a late third-quarter run and pulled away from the No. 6-ranked Regina Cougars for a 74-63 road win on Friday night at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

And it was Regina product Kianna Wiens that powered that 17-5 run for Trinity Western in the last three and a half minutes of the third, which turned what had been a two-point lead for the Cougars into a 10-point TWU advantage heading into the fourth. Wiens hit a pair of triples and scored eight of her 13 points during that run, and the Cougars weren't able to get any closer than to within eight points in the game's final period.

Trinity Western remains unbeaten as the Spartans are off to a 3-0 start to conference play, while the Cougars drop to 2-1.

"Tonight's game was a great progression from last weekend," Trinity Western coach Cheryl Jean-Paul said. "Unselfish play, taking great open looks and not trying to do what your opponent did to you was a great indication of this group's maturity. This is such a tough gym to play in and to come out with a win is so hard to do so we'll take it and keep growing from this experience."

Jessie Brown led the charge for Trinity Western, which shot 60% from three-point range as a team in the win. Brown was 5-for-10 from beyond the arc and finished with a game-high 19 points, while Tessa Ratzlaff added 16 points and Nicole Fransson joined Wiens – a Riffel graduate – with 13 points. Sarah Buckingham also scored in double figures for the Spartans, finishing with 11 points while also collecting eight points and five assists.

The story for the Cougars was All-Canadian guard Kyanna Giles, who was injured early in the game and didn't return. While they only turned the ball over 10 times, Regina was just 3-for-17 from the field and 6-for-16 from the free throw line while shooting 35% from the field overall. Carolina Goncalves had a team-high 12 points, Macaela Crone scored 11 and added eight rebounds, and Michaela Kleisinger registered 10 points and six assists. Christina McCusker had eight points to go along with her game-high 11 rebounds.

The two teams will meet again on Saturday night at the CKHS. Game time is scheduled for 6:00.