Cougars win big, but injury hurts
Before the 2015-16 Canada West women’s basketball season began, University of Regina Cougars head coach Dave Taylor said health would decide his team’s fate.
So there was starting guard Kehlsie Crone on Friday, writhing on the floor at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health and Sport with a left knee injury less than two minutes into the Cougars’ home opener.
After being helped to the dressing room, Crone returned to the bench late in the first quarter. She remained there — or on the nearby stationary bike — for the remainder of Regina’s 86-44 victory over the Lethbridge Pronghorns.
Crone intends to play in tonight’s rematch (6 p.m., CKHS), but the incident gave the fifth-year guard and her coach a scare.
“I freaked out,” admitted Crone, who described “a popping, pulling sensation” in the joint. “It’s not something I’d really felt before.
“I wanted to play again (Friday) just to see how it felt, but whatever Dave says goes.”
Taylor confirmed that Crone wanted to re-enter the game, but he held her out for precautionary reasons. Had the game been close, he would have put her back in.
“My first reaction is I always feel bad for fifth-years any time they miss games, because they never get those back,” Taylor said.
“The secondary thing is you start looking at, ‘As a team, what are we doing?’ ”
“It’s not like — knock on wood — if we lose someone we’re going to be awful. But to get where we want to go on a national scene, we need all bodies ready to go.”
The Cougars (3-0) played 12 players and all of them except Crone got at least 12 minutes of action.
Christina McCusker led Regina with 16 points and Charlotte Kot added 13 points and nine rebounds. Danielle Fritzke hit five threepointers and had 18 points for Lethbridge (0-3).
A bad third quarter cost the Cougars men’s basketball squad in an 83-76 Canada West loss to the Pronghorns at the CKHS. Regina led 43-36 at the half, but was outscored 31-11 in the third and couldn’t recover.
Jonathan Tull scored 23 points and Travis Sylvestre added 16 for the Cougars (2-1). Rob Olsen had 20 points for Lethbridge (3-0).
Toni Ross made 22 saves for the shutout as the Cougars women’s hockey team beat Lethbridge 3-0 in Canada West play Friday at the Co-operators Centre.
The line of Kylie Gavelin (one goal, two assists), Jaycee Magwood (one goal, one helper) and Stephanie Sawchuk (one goal) powered Regina’s offence.
Ian McNulty scored three goals Friday as Regina beat the host Pronghorns 7-4 in Canada West men’s hockey action.
Dylen McKinlay, Austin Bourhis, Mark Schneider and Landon Peel also scored for the Cougars. Artisom Kalashnikov, Dalton Sward, Brock Hirsche and Spenser Jensen replied for Lethbridge.