Basketball playoff recap

author: nathan mccarville | sports writer

And so (some of them) march on / Nathan McCarville

How the basketball teams did their 

Here’s a recap of what’s been happening with the University of Regina basketball teams over the past couple of weeks. The women’s team is headed to the Canada West Final for the second year running against the same team they played against last year, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. The Canada West Finals this year will be held in Saskatoon. After winning the last four Canada West playoff games, the Cougars are sitting in a great position to win the Canada West Championship title and have confirmed their place in the U SPORTS Championship taking place from Mar. 7-9 in Toronto. Matchups will be announced soon.  

Starting off with a couple of home games for the Canada West quarter finals against the University of Victoria Vikes, the women dominated both games, attaining a margin of 20 points each game. The first game, played on Feb. 14, ended with a result of 71-51 in favour of the Cougars. The second game turned out much the same, the game ending with a final score of 81-60, again, in favour of the Cougars.  

The Cougars faced off against the University of Calgary Dinos in the semi–finals the following week, with the first game being played on Feb. 21 on the Calgary Dinos home court. After the first faceoff against the Albertan team, the Cougars’ first game ended with a favourable result of 72-58, with top scoring players including Macaela Crone with 17 points and Michaela Kleisinger with a fair 14 points for the game.  

The Cougars stayed ahead of the Dinos in every quarter of the game, playing with a comfortable margin in their first semi-final game that would determine their involvement in the final. The second game saw the Cougars once again taking the win against the Dinos. The game ended with a result of 82-65 for the Cougars, sweeping the semi–finals in the lead–up to the final. Kyanna Giles scored a high 27 points in the second game against the Dinos, followed by Carolina Goncalves with 16 points, and Christina McCusker with 10 points.  

Coming out of the regular season hot with a streak of eight games, and winning their last four games for Canada West’s Finals, the onslaught is set to continue as the women face off against the Huskies in Saskatoon.  

On the men’s side of the Cougars basketball program, their season has come to an end after an exciting season on the court. The men end their season with a respectable regular season record of 14 wins and six losses throughout the year. Winning their last regular season game against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, the Cougars went straight into playing for a playoff spot.  

The Cougars played in a play-in game against the MRU Cougars for the chance to compete in the Canada West Finals. Winning by a large margin, the team celebrated on the court accordingly. Myles Hamilton scored an astounding 29 points for the game, and the Cougars were headed to the quarter finals to face off against the Saskatchewan Huskies, though the games did not turn out as smoothly as the regular season did.  

Previously playing against the Huskies in their last games of the season, the Cougars lost their first faceoff against the Huskies with a close score of 102-97 in favour of the Huskies. The Cougars came out on top in the second game, winning by eight points with a score of 96-88.  

However, the unexpected happened in the quarter finals games. The Huskies were able to come out and win the first game by a rather large margin compared to the previous games the teams played just two weeks before, ending with a result of 99-68 for the Huskies. The second game held a similar result, with the Cougars improving their score by nine points, scoring 77 instead against the Huskies’ 97 points.  

Though the season ends, the Cougars men’s basketball team will return to the court with many of the same players next year, with the exception of fifth–year from Hungary, Kornel Tokolyi, whose last season was celebrated after the last regular–season game, giving the current Cougars another chance to compete in Canada West Championships in the 2019-2020 season.