Hometown crowd sees Cougars claim Canada West women’s basketball title
Next up for University of Regina is a shot at USports national title before their fans
There’s no place like home in the Canada West women’s basketball final.
For the third consecutive year, the host team has won a championship showdown between the University of Regina Cougars and University of Saskatchewan Huskies.
The Huskies won the 2016 and 2017 titles by 11-point margins in Saskatoon before the Cougars flipped the script Friday with a 75-55 victory before a season-high crowd of 1,814 at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health and Sport.
“It’s obviously always more special at home,” Cougars head coach Dave Taylor said. “Winning the Canada West banner any time is great, but you can see that our fans were down on the floor with us so it was a little extra-special.”
Huskies head coach Lisa Thomaidis also appreciated the electric atmosphere in the building.
“It’s great to see these women being supported this way,” she said. “It looks like close to a sellout (Friday) and it has been the same at our place the last two years.
“It’s what these players deserve. They put in a lot of hard work and heart and effort. I’m really happy to see that they’re playing in front of big crowds like this.”
Regina broke open a tight game late in the second quarter and never looked back.
After Summer Masikewich scored for the Huskies to create a 29-29 tie, Regina reeled off 14 consecutive points — including the final 12 of the first half.
The Cougars led 41-29 at halftime on the strength a stellar effort by Kyanna Giles, who scored 15 of her game-high 18 points over the first 20 minutes.
“We get into our little ruts and Dave’s like, ‘OK, now it’s time to turn it on,’ ” Giles said. “We, just being us, got a couple of transitions and took it to the basket and then played great defence. That’s what turned it around for us.”
Giles also had a team-high seven rebounds while demonstrating why she was a Canada West firstteam all-star.
“Kyanna just lives for these type of games and these moments,” Taylor said.
“She can just take over. Then we had Carolina (Goncalves) come off the bench and Charlotte Kot, who is just a steadying influence for us. We’ve got a lot of different weapons.”
Goncalves, the Canada West rookie of the year, had 16 points in 24 minutes. Kot, a first-team allstar, added 14 points. Sara Hubenig chipped in with seven points, a game-high six assists and five rebounds.
Sabine Dukate paced the Huskies with 12 points and six rebounds.
The Cougars — ranked second in the nation — are to play host to the U Sports championship, which runs from Thursday to Sunday.
The U of S, ranked sixth, will also be among eight teams that will compete for the Bronze Baby.
“We knew tonight was like a bonus game,” Thomaidis said. “We were playing without our starting point guard and junior nationalteam player, Libby Epoch, so we knew it was going to be a tough go without her.
“I was really proud of our team and how hard we pushed. I thought we played pretty solid for most of the game. We just couldn’t knock down some shots and we missed a lot of free throws.
“Hopefully we can clean that up for next week.”
The Cougars won their second conference championship in 12 years under Taylor, who had previously guided his team to the 2013 Canada West crown. Regina had previously won a conference title in 2004.
“These are hard to win,” he said of the Canada West final. “This is my ninth one. I’ve got two and everybody goes, ‘Well, you’ve lost seven,’ but it’s hard just getting there.
“It’s nothing but good teams. We’re constantly playing one of the top five or six teams in the country. You saw that the U of S, without their starting point guard, was still a tough, tough opponent.”
The Huskies won their first national championship in 2016. Regina captured its only title in 2001, when Taylor was an assistant to head coach Christine Stapleton.
You can see that our fans were down on the floor with us so it was a little extra-special.