‘This one was really special:’ Cougars win Can-West title

The third time turned out to be the charm for the University of Regina Cougars women’s basketball team, winning their third Can-West championship in the program’s history.

The Cougars once again met the University of Saskatchewan Huskies in the Can-West final, with both team’s reaching the game the past three years. The Huskies had won the title the previous two times.

The teams met at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health and Sport at the U of R in front of 1,814 fans.

During the first quarter, neither of the familiar foes could find a way to take over the game, with the largest lead only being six by the Cougars.

The second quarter proved to be just as tough of a challenge for both teams to pull away, until the midway point. With the score tied at 29, the Cougars would ultimately find a way and scored 12 of the quarter’s final 14 points.

“We kind of just went a full gear and blew them out,” said Kyanna Giles, who scored a game-high 18 points.

WBB | Kyanna starts it, Kyanna finishes it! Cougars go up 38-29 late in the half. #WinTheWest #WeAreUofR pic.twitter.com/9Hw5YXZDci

— U of R Cougars (@ReginaCougars) March 3, 2018

Despite having a comfortable lead in the third quarter, there was still drama for the Cougars as Giles had to leave the game after injuring her knee colliding with her teammate.

“Any knee injury is scary to me so I just kind of went down and then after I got up and started walking around, I felt much better,” Giles said.

Giles would return in the fourth and from that point on, there was no looking back for the Cougars. The team never let the Huskies get close again and would go on to win the game 75-55.

The win marked the third time the team has won the conference championship, with banners from the 2004 and 2013 seasons.

“This one was really special to do it at home in our own gym, I think we had the motto to protect our home court today and I think we did that,” said fifth-year Cougars player Charlotte Kot.

Kot admitted it was good to get a win over the Huskies after losing the previous two.

“I’ve been thinking about this moment since the last time the last one ended.”

Giles agreed it’s nice to get a win after losing to the Huskies last year.

“Everyone hates losing the championship game so we knew that was behind us and we wanted to get going and win this.”

Another of the bright spots for the Cougars in the game was the play of Carolina Goncalves. Goncalves was named the player of the game after scoring 16 points off the bench.

WBB | Huge play by Carolina Goncalves! She gets the steal off the inbounds and finishes to put the Cougars up 54-37! #WinTheWest #WeAreUofR pic.twitter.com/WucBoK8dLB

— U of R Cougars (@ReginaCougars) March 3, 2018

Goncalves, who’s from Oeiras, Portugal and was named this year’s Canada-West Rookie of the Year, said the win is a special one.

“It was hard here being away from my family, my country and all my friends but I feel so glad, like (all) the work was so worth it, I’m so happy for my teammates, my coach and this community,” Goncalves said.

This is head coach Dave Taylor’s second conference title with the team after nine appearances in the title game 12 years.
He said having home-court advantage proved to be a difference maker.

“We haven’t been the favourites a lot and so it’s hard to get there for sure, would I have loved to win more, absolutely, but it’s tough to go win these things on the road and of those nine, seven of them we’ve been playing on the road,” Taylor said.

Taylor said he’s happy for the fifth-year players, who will get the gold medal to end their careers.

While the Cougars had some luck with injuries, the Huskies were not afforded the same kind, with the team playing in the game without starting point guard Libby Epoch, who suffered an injury during practice this past week.

“We knew we were going to be in tough without her and that was proven tonight,” said Huskies head coach Lisa Thomaidis. “Full credit to Regina, they played very well tonight and they took the opportunity when they had it and they capitalized.”

Thomaidis said her team missed their fair share of opportunities in the game, but are now focused on the national title tournament.

“We love putting banners up in our place, we’re not going to have one this year but there’s still one to be had and we’ll regroup and we will be ready for next week,” she said.

Thomaidis said she hoped Epoch is ready to go in time for the tournament.

Both teams will now turn their attention to the USPORTS Final 8 Tournament, which begins on Thursday at the U of R. Regina, Saskatchewan, Carleton, and McMaster have locked up four of the eight berths with the other four to be decided on Saturday and Sunday.