COUGARS SCARED BY CHARGING WOLFPACK



For Immediate Release: November 21, 2008

Kamloops-The University of Regina Cougars maybe the number 2 ranked women’s basketball team in the CIS, but they were sent a message by the upstart Thompson Rivers University Wolfpack:  Watch out for us.  The Cougars had to mount a late charge to beat the WolfPack 64-60.

“We didn’t want to make it that exciting,” said Cougar coach Dave Taylor, whos team is now 6 and 1 on the year. “Every time we extended, we let them back into it. Credit to them that they never stopped playing hard. I’m sure Coach Reeves would say…with a young team he’s probably pretty happy with.  We just kept making runs and at the end we made enough of a run to put it away.”

Rebecca Schmidt(4th year, forward, Regina, Sask) led the way for Regina with 16 points.  Jessica Lynch (5 th year, forward, Surrey, BC) chipped in with 14 points.

“I think rebounds and turnovers killed us, “ stated Reeves “ They out rebounded us only by eight, but they were more critical rebounds: the timing of them.  The turnovers….we had one stretch, with seven minutes left, we turned the ball over  four times in a row.  When you think what you could have done with those turnovers: you have those four possessions—make a few foul shots and they are scrambling not us.”

The Cougars were up 34-29 at the half.  Early in the first quarter, TRU led 15-14 and at times, closed the cap to only a single point.    Reeves said his gutsy crew of mainly first and second year players didn’t bow to the Regina record or their top 5 national ranking.  “ Certainly it was a mismatch on paper.  They are all fourth and fifth year kids. We are mostly first and second year kids.  Its quite a gap.  They have experience, they know how to seal better in the post. They know how to do those things because of experience. We are still learning how to defend that stuff never mind trying to do it ourselves.”
Sarah Cameron (5 th year, guard, Langley BC) and Kaitlyn Widsten (2nd year, guard, Tswwassen, BC) led the way for TRU with 17 points.  Widsten getting hers coming off the bench.  Tracy Kocs (1st year, forward, Port Moody, BC) added 15 points. 
“They all stepped up tonite,’ said Reeves.  “They hit shots which we needed to do since it was a low scoring game. I’m proud of everyone’s effort. We try to believe in 15 strong and that’s the way we want to keep it.”
Taylor looked at the young WolfPack squad and sees where his Regina girls were three years ago. “ We knew two years before last year that we were building and  we thought we would be good but you just never know.  You hope it’s going to pay off.  I think they’ll have the payoff in a couple of years.”

FOUL SHOTS: The Cougars lost the services of guard Meryl Jordan (5 th year, guard, Wynyard Sask)late in the 2nd half with an apparent arm injury.