(By University of Regina Sports Information)
REGINA – The University of Regina's women's basketball team scored the first eight points of the game and never looked back, coming away with an 86-53 home win over the UBC Okanagan Heat on Friday night at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
Kyanna Giles had another massive game for the Cougars in the win as the third-year guard led all players with 25 points while also piling up seven rebounds and five assists. Angela Bongomin got her first start of the season and responded with a career-high 15 points while going 6-for-10 from the field.
The Cougars opened up an eight-point lead less than two minutes in after scoring on four of their first five possessions of the contest. UBC Okanagan replied with a 9-2 run of its own, but it was all Regina after that. The Cougars led 22-13 after the first quarter, were up 46-24 at halftime, and put the game away for good with a 10-0 run in the third quarter which featured four different players scoring buckets.
Michaela Kleisinger also had a solid game for the Cougars, ending up with six points, seven rebounds, and seven assists. The Cougars turned over the ball just eight times in the win, their second lowest total of the season.
Ana Evans had a team-high 16 points for UBC Okanagan, which was making just its second trip to Regina since joining U SPORTS and its first trip to the Queen City in almost exactly five years. The Heat (0-15) also got a 10-point, seven-rebound performance from Brianna Falk.
Regina improves to 10-3 with the victory as the Cougars look to solidify their place in the Canada West standings. The conference's top four seeds will earn a bye through the first round and the right to host a best-of-three quarter-final series, and the Cougars entered the weekend with the fourth-best RPI in Canada West.
The two teams will close out the weekend series on Saturday night at the CKHS. Game time is again set for 6:00.
NOTES: Giles is now averaging 19.1 points per game this season, the most by a U of R player since Cymone Bouchard averaged 22.3 during the 2002-03 campaign.