By Brett Hopper

WINNIPEG – Going into the final weekend of regular season play, the Bisons  (8-13) were coming off a disappointing road trip out west where they lost a pair of games to Calgary, and Lethbridge. On Friday night, the Herd came home to the Investors Group Athletic Centre to play the Great Plains Division-leading University of Regina (15-6).

The Cougars, ranked eight in the country, were visiting the University of Manitoba in a game, which according to the standings, had already been determined due to the fact both teams clinched playoff births in previous weeks.

Despite staying with the Cougars for a majority of the game, the Herd ran into foul troubles and couldn’t pull out a win, losing the the game 83-65. The resulting loss means the Herd will have to wait to see how the Rival Wesmen, who hold the tie-breaker, do in their game to see if Manitoba will host a playoff game.

Bison co-captain, Melanie Schlichter, started the game with a hot hand, knocking down six points before the game eclipsed the two-minute mark. The rest of the Bison squad were able to maintain the initial intensity started by Schlitcher, by holding the Cougars to a two-point deficit for much of the opening quarter.

As the second quarter got underway, it looked as though Regina was returning to their division-leading form, going up by seven points to take a 27-20 lead thanks to a great defensive effort. Although, the Bisons managed to hang around for the remainder of the quarter, and were looking fairly strong on offence, they could only come to within 7 points. At the half, the score was 40-33 for the visiting Cougars.

The Cougars’ Stacey Walker was leading all players at the half with 12 points, while Tessa Klassen had 10 points for the Herd.

The Bisons were starting to inch their way closer to Regina at the start of the second half. By the halfway point of the quarter, Manitoba found themselves down by only a bucket. The Herd’s offensive awareness, and ability to take advantage of key mistakes kept them in the game in the latter half of the game.

Going into the fourth quarter, the Cougars had regained a slight lead at 60-53. Not to be outplayed, the Bisons came to within three points with eight minutes left in the game. In an intense ending to the game, it seemed the Bisons were battling with the referees more than anything else as unnecessary fouls began to add up. By the time Manitoba was able to regroup it was too little, too late as the cougars drew first blood, taking the game 83-65.

The Cougars’ Carmen Stewart lead all players at the end of the game with 20 points and three steals. On the other side of the ball, Schlitcher finished the game strong adding 19 points of her own to go along with three assists and two steals.

The rematch goes tomorrow night, Saturday February 9 at 6:15pm. The evening has been dubed “Girls Night Out”, a night dedicated to women in sport.