Ava Regier led the Griffins with 11 points on Saturday (Sydney Wszolek photo).
Ava Regier led the Griffins with 11 points on Saturday (Sydney Wszolek photo).
January 11, 2025

Short-handed Griffins compete with veteran Cougars for three quarters but 2nd quarter lapse costly in loss

Box Score

Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

REGINA – For three of the four quarters on Saturday, the Griffins played right with the Regina Cougars.

Unfortunately, the second quarter is rather glaring in the final result – the Griffins were outscored 26-0 in those 10 minutes and lost 70-34 to the Prairie Division-leading Cougars on Saturday.

"We had a hard time making shots," said Griffins head coach Katherine Adams of the second quarter. "We had some open ones that we didn't knock down and we struggled to get in a rhythm offensively. Regina's full court pressure just slowed us down and they disrupted us, so we weren't able to generate some good shots at the offensive end. 

"When they're getting some steals, rebounds and are allowed to push in transition, that set the tone for that."

With the result, the Griffins fall to 0-10, while Regina improves to 10-2 on the Canada West season.

Canada West leading scorer Jade Belmore again paced the Cougars with 18 points, while Cara Misskey had 17 and Maddy Seida finished with 12 for the home side.

The Griffins had one player in double digits as Ava Regier knocked down 11 off the bench. Sofia Makinen chipped in seven points and five rebounds.

MacEwan was without leading scorer Unity Obasuyi, leading rebounder Samantha Hickey and were also missing veteran Toni Gordon for a portion of the game when she was being evaluated for an injury that she eventually returned from. 

Despite that, they were only outscored by 10 points combined in quarters one, three and four.

"That's something we can take away from this weekend," said Adams. "We certainly had some moments where we got away from what brought us success, but if we look over the course of 40 minutes today, we competed for 30 of them. I think if you look at our lineup and who played today … against a very talented, very physical, very veteran Regina team it's really, really positive.

"We tried to mix up what we did – tried some different things defensively and had some different matchups. I think it's all really good in our growth and development in where we're at, learning how to compete against the best teams in the conference."

The Griffins will aim to take that into their next weekend – a home series vs. the Lethbridge Pronghorns on Jan. 17-18.