REGINA, Sask. – One of the top scorers in Canada West, Saskatchewan's
Lawrence Moore was quiet for the first three quarters but absolutely exploded in the fourth as the Huskies pulled out a wild come-from-behind 102-97 road win over Regina on Friday at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
The Cougars led by as many as 17 points in the third quarter and still had a 13-point advantage midway through the fourth, but that's when Moore simply took over the contest. Moore scored 24 of Saskatchewan's final 29 points, all of which came in the second half of the fourth quarter. He sparked a 23-5 run, highlighted by a four-point play that gave the Huskies the lead for good.
"People were probably sitting there wondering why I was sticking with (Moore)," Saskatchewan head coach
Barry Rawlyk said after the game. "But when crunch time comes, he can really bring it and he delivered in the fourth quarter tonight for sure."
The win assures Saskatchewan (11-8) of one of the top four seeds in the Canada West postseason, and with that a bye through the first round and the right to host one of the four conference quarterfinal series. While the Huskies will have to wait to find out who their opponent is, they do know that that series is slated to take place Feb. 14-16 inside the PAC.
Despite only having eight points midway through the fourth quarter, Moore finished with a game-high 32 – most of which came on his six three-pointers. He also added six rebounds, five assists, and four steals for the Huskies, while three other Saskatchewan players also hit double figures in scoring.
Emmanuel Akintunde had 15 points, with
Joseph Barker and
Alexander Dewar both chipping in with 11. Barker added nine rebounds to tie for the game high.
Carter Millar had a team-leading 22 points for the Cougars and also pulled down nine rebounds to fall just short of a double-double. Greishe Clerjuste scored 19 points, Myles Hamilton had 13, and Benjamin Hillis added 12 points while dishing out a team-leading six assists.
The Cougars (13-6) entered the weekend needing a sweep to secure a top-four seed, so the setback means that they'll instead host a Canada West play-in game next Friday, Feb. 8 at the CKHS. They can still finish anywhere from fifth to eighth in the conference RPI, so their seeding and first-round opponent won't be determined until the conclusion of Saturday's games.
The two teams will close out the weekend series on Saturday night. Tip-off is again scheduled for 8:00.
