Favour Igbinyemi, seen in action against Calgary last month, led the Griffins with a career-high 22 points on Friday (Husain Dhooma photo).
Favour Igbinyemi, seen in action against Calgary last month, led the Griffins with a career-high 22 points on Friday (Husain Dhooma photo).
February 7, 2026

Despite playing great D, Griffins' cold shooting too much to overcome in loss to Cougars

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Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON — On a night where they struggled to shoot the basketball, the MacEwan Griffins' defence needed to be locked in.

For the first three quarters, their gritty play on D gave them a shot to knock off the visiting Regina Cougars, but it all unravelled in the fourth quarter before MacEwan fell 89-71 on Friday night at the David Atkinson Gym.

"I thought we played hard for 25 minutes, but they wanted it more than us," said Griffins head coach David Kapinga. 

"Coming out of the half, I think they didn't think we'd get punched like we did to start the half, and Regina came with new energy and aggressiveness, and we didn't respond at all. 

Favour Igbinyemi led MacEwan with a career-high 22 points, seven rebounds, three steals and one block off the bench in the loss for the Griffins. 

Job Janda and Milan Jaksic recorded 11 points each, while hauling in nine and five rebounds respectively. With his first rebound of the night, Jaksic became the first Griffin with 500 career rebounds in Canada West play.

Ben Kamba was scorching hot in leading Regina with 32 points on 11-of-13 shooting and he was a perfect 4-for-4 from behind the arc in the win for Regina.

"He took over the game at both ends of the floor," said Kapinga.

"He hit shots, he hounded our point guards, and they rushed. He was the head of their spear, and we have to find a solution against him tomorrow."

To signify just how tough of a night it was shooting-wise for MacEwan, they took 14 more shots than Regina in the first quarter, thanks in large part to forcing eight turnovers, and they held just a 17-13 lead.

Igbinyemi and Jaksic hit five of their seven shots from the floor.

"That's when I knew we were in trouble. We had them in foul trouble too, and we simply didn't capitalize," said Kapinga.

MacEwan held a slim 34-33 lead at the half, and, despite their shooting struggles in the first half, their commitment to playing tough defence gave them the small lead at halftime.

But right off the opening play in the second half, the Cougars forced a turnover and earned an easy breakaway layup, kick-started a superb second half for Regina.

Judson Weir hit the Griffins' first three-pointer of the game to cut Regina's lead to 44-41 with 6:30 left in the third quarter, but then Kamba went to work.

He scored 13 of his 32 points in the third quarter. After Igbinyemi nailed a trey to cut the lead to just 49-48, Kamba went right down the floor and hit a three-pointer of his own.

He followed it up by drawing a foul, and hitting two free throws, and then forced a turnover and made a nice layup, and all of a sudden Regina's lead was 56-48.

Kamba didn't cool down when the fourth quarter started either. Kamba stole the ball at mid court and cruised in for a layup to make it 61-54, and he followed it up with a three-pointer to make it a 10-point game.

"Kudos to him for his aggression," said Kapinga.

"This is his last weekend (as a senior) playing in the regular season, and he came out with that energy, and I respect that."

Kapinga said games like these are some of the hardest losses. He was very happy with how his team competed on the defensive side of the ball.

They forced Regina into making 27 turnovers, but they just couldn't overcome a tough night shooting from multiple different resources that had off-nights. 

"I didn't think we were getting good shots, to be honest with you," said Kapinga.

"We missed some bunnies, but we forced a lot of tough shots. We just have to shoot better. We created enough possessions for ourselves, but something there wasn't clicking or working.

"In a game where you're plus-11 in shots, you shouldn't lose that game by almost 20."

Kapinga was very pleased with the effort from Igbinyemi, who he's been able to rely on to start and come off the bench this season.

The first-year Griffins forward was making his presence known at both ends of the floor with his all-out effort.

"I hope he takes this performance and uses it as confidence for next year," said Kapinga.

"All year we've been talking about what type of shots he'd be getting if he does the right things, and today he saw those shots, and converted those shots… I'm really happy for him to see these results, and for us, we have more confidence in him."

MacEwan will wrap their season up with one more meeting with Regina on Saturday (5 p.m., David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV). It's Senior Night, so prior to the contest, the team will honour graduating seniors Job Janda, Milan Jaksic and Dami Osuma.