(By University of Regina Sports Information)
REGINA – The University of Regina's women's basketball team used a huge third-quarter run to pull away from Manitoba for an 83-60 win on Saturday in a Canada West game at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
The win secures a weekend sweep over the Bisons for the No. 10-ranked Cougars, who are now 6-2 on the season and are riding a four-game winning streak.
The Cougars laid the groundwork for the third quarter in the final two minutes of the first half. They finished the second quarter with three straight buckets to take a seven-point lead into halftime, and then Kyanna Giles and Christina McCusker sparked them to a 10-2 run coming out of the break.
In all, it was a 27-7 run for the Cougars in 10 minutes of game play that turned a slim one-point Regina lead late in the second into a 21-point advantage with a minute to go in the third.
"I thought our defence was much more consistent tonight especially after the first quarter, and that allowed us to go on that big run in the third which put the game away for us," Cougars head coach Dave Taylor said. "We got a great outing from Angela Bongomin tonight. She gave us a big presence inside with her rebounding and scoring and it was nice to see her get going."
Bongomin finished just shy of a double-double, collecting 12 points and nine rebounds in a spirited 18 minutes played off the bench. Kyanna Giles had a game-high 22 points and also had seven rebounds, four assists, and three steals, while Macaela Crone had 11 points and 10 rebounds to finish with her third double-double in the team's last four games.
Regina's Christina McCusker also hit double figures in scoring, matching Bongomin's 4-for-6 effort from the field and finishing with 10 points.
Nicole Konieczny had 16 points and eight rebounds for Manitoba, which had won five of six Canada West games coming into Friday's game but will head into next weekend's home series against Calgary with a 5-3 conference record.
The Cougars will have next weekend off before closing out the first half of the schedule on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at home against MacEwan.