Home win a change of pace
Nov. 30, 2009 - Regina Leader-Post
By Tim Switzer
The University of Regina Cougars men's basketball team can forego the renovations at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health and Sport.
In their last game before the Canada West conference goes on hiatus for exams and the holiday season, the Cougars finally got their first home victory with a 92-85 overtime win over the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack on Saturday.
Regina is now 1-3 at home and 3-1 on the road.
"We were joking that we should put the other team's decals on the court to make it look 'away' as much as possible," Regina forward Jamal Williams said laughing. "It was good for everybody. We were starting to feel the pressure (to win at home). There was wear and tear on everyone."
"Even with a good home crowd, you can't take anything for granted," added centre Kris Heshka.
Regina's losses at the CKHS all came to teams from the B.C.-based Pacific Division -- 91-76 to the Simon Fraser Clan on Nov. 13, 81-74 to the Trinity Western Spartans on Nov. 14 and 89-73 to the Fraser Valley Cascades on Friday. Regina nearly had loss No. 4 had it not been for a timely putback by Williams off an airball by Jordan McFarlen.
In a game that saw the score tied 13 times and 24 lead changes, the Cougars seemed to have pulled ahead for good with 21/2 minutes left with a 75-68 lead. But Wolfpack forward Jeff Friesen scored seven straight points and Sean Garvey hit a lay-up for the visitors to take the lead before Williams tied the game again with his bucket with 27 seconds left.
After each team failed to score on its final possession of regulation, Friesen opened the scoring in the extra frame before the Cougars took the lead for good after back-to-back three pointers by Williams and Jeff Lukomski.
"This season we've got 11 road games, nine at home and if we want to qualify for the playoffs, we thought we would have to be .500 or better on the road, assuming we defended homecourt," said Regina head coach James Hillis. "That's been reversed, but we're .500 (overall) now and we have to keep squeaking some out on the road and get better at defending here."
Williams finished the game with 18 points and 16 rebounds, Lukomski had 20 points and five assists, Paul Schubach had 22 points, six rebounds and five assists and Heshka had 16 points and 12 boards. Friesen led TRU with 21 points and 16 rebounds while Connor Agnew added 20 points, including a 6-for-7 night from three-point range.
The Wolfpack is still searching for its first win on the season despite several close games as of late, including a 93-87 loss to the Brandon Bobcats on Friday and an 84-81 defeat against the No. 2-ranked UBC Thunderbirds on Nov. 19.
While the Cougars came away with the victory Saturday, Agnew's night once again hit home a glaring weakness in Regina's defence.
"Every team just goes off on us from the three-point line and we need to address that," said Williams. "We've had to run away from our man-to-man defence, except for (Saturday), which helped. That's a good step forward. You always want to use zone (defence) to changes things up, but it seems we've been using zone because we can't keep a guy in front of us."
At 4-4, the Cougars aren't entirely happy with where they are at, but know they are not yet out of the running in the Prairie Division, either.
"It's the kind of season where I can see it coming down to those (University of Saskatchewan) games at the end of the season," said Hillis. "It's going to be a logjam there where you win two games that last weekend, you might be able to finish second, win one gets you third, and lose both, you might be knocked out. It seems that's the way it's shaping up."
The Cougars are to take on the host Williston (N.D.) State Tetons on Jan. 2 in an exhibition game before returning to Canada West action on Jan. 8 and 9 in B.C. against UBC and the Victoria Vikes.