WBB | Cougars accelerate past Bisons, advance to quarter-finals

Written by Dan Kinvig for UFV Athletics

ABBOTSFORD — Just five minutes and 54 seconds had elapsed in his team’s first-round playoff clash with the Manitoba Bisons when Regina Cougars head coach Dave Taylor felt compelled to call his first timeout.

The Bisons, the lowest seed in the Canada West playoff bracket at No. 12, were out-hustling the No. 5 Cougars all over the floor, with a particular emphasis on the offensive glass. They’d just scored six straight points to draw level at 9-9.

It was still early, but Taylor knew his team needed a wakeup call, and he lit into them with the volume cranked to 11.

“Are you OK with this?” he asked his squad.

They weren’t, as it turned out.

The Cougars flicked the switch, responding with a 10-0 run to close the first quarter, and they maintained a comfortable double-digit margin en route to a 71-45 victory behind 22 points from Canada West player of the year Jade Belmore. 

Regina advances to face the tournament host University of the Fraser Valley Cascades in the quarter-finals on Thursday at the UFV Athletic Centre (6 p.m., CanadaWest.tv). 

“I kind of put it on them — ‘You guys are talented, but you’ve got to earn it,’” Taylor said post-game, reflecting on his early chat with his squad. 

“The big thing we talk about all the time is, we have to have some accountability on ourselves, and each other too. As we’ve proven with some of our wins this year, we’re very good. But we also have team lapses sometimes. My point to them was, in the playoffs, to get through Canada West this year, you’ve got to be on top of your game and you can’t make effort mistakes. If you miss shots? Don’t care. But if you miss boxouts? . . . That won’t get it done. That’ll send you home. 

“That was my point — not just our team, but all of us (in the CW playoffs). It’s not going to be who makes shots. It’s going to be the team that doesn’t beat themselves. And I thought after that, we responded really well for the majority of the game and did a much better job.”

Dayna Pearce sparked the Cougars late in the first quarter, scoring five points in the 10-0 run to end the frame, and Regina extended the margin to 38-21 at the half.

Manitoba found an offensive spark midway through the third quarter, as three-pointers from Autumn Agar and Emily Mandamin highlighted a 10-0 run of their own. But that merely trimmed Regina’s lead from 25 points to 15, and subsequent three-point plays from Dayna Pearce (from beyond the arc) and Belmore (on an and-one layup) extended the lead back beyond the 20-point threshold. The Cougars cruised home from there.

Belmore counted a pair of three-pointers among her efficient 9-for-14 shooting line, and Pearce (11) and Kianna Wiens (10) also scored in double-figures for Regina. Ryenn Schultz added eight points and eight rebounds for the winners.

Agar and Emerson Martin tied for team-high scoring honours for the Bisons with 10 points apiece, and Lauren Bartlett posted seven points and 11 boards.

“I thought we kind of lost focus in the second quarter of our game plan and trying to execute that,” Manitoba head coach Michele Sung analyzed. “If you don’t lock in on the best player in our conference, she’s going to hurt us, right? I also thought we didn’t do a great job of finishing at the rim. We created chances, we just didn’t do a great job of finishing.”