Box Score
LETHBRIDGE – Back in the in comfort of their own gym, the stakes were pretty simple for the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s basketball team: find one win in the weekend and make the playoffs.  Aside from clinching a playoff spot, the ‘Horns rolled to a decisive 94-69 victory over the visiting University of Regina Cougars Friday night and cemented third place in the Prairie division.
 
Fourth-year swingman Julian Spearchief-Morris led the ‘Horns with 17 points, boosted by 5-7 shooting from beyond the arc.  A host of ‘Horns followed with 14 apiece, including Terrance Blake, Morgan Duce, and Daryl Cooper.  Post Derek Waldner pulled down a game high eight rebounds and Cooper also passed around six assists.
 
The Cougars were led by reserve Sterling Nostedt, who knocked down 18 points, including four treys, and forward Paul Gareau added 11.  Third-year Connor Burns grabbed seven boards in the loss.
 
The ‘Horns spread the playing time around in the first half in particular and were led by fourth-year guard, Blake who was a perfect 3-3 from three-point land and dropped all of his 14 points before the teams headed to the locker rooms at the break.  Nostedt matched him, however, with 16 of his 18 points falling the first half of play.  The home team was stellar from the tipoff, running the score up to 13-0 before the Cougars hit the scoreboard due to a jumper by Nostedt.  Though the ‘Horns held an 11 point advantage after the first frame, the Cougars pulled to within two with four and a half minutes to play in half before the ‘Horns earned 49-37 lead at the mid-mark buzzer.
 
The ‘Horns used the third quarter to take back control of the game, outscoring the Cougars 28-17 en route to a 77-54 advantage. They maintained that control throughout the entire second half, culminating in a high-flying Tyson McIntyre dunk off a Dallon Martin lob with four minutes left to play and pushing the spread to as high as 34 before the final buzzer sounded.  Spearchief-Morris picked the torch up from Blake and nailed 5-7 from beyond the arc in the last two quarters, helping the ‘Horns to a three-point shooting percentage of 50 on the night, going 13-26.
 
With the win, the ‘Horns boost their record over .500 to 10-9 on the season, while the Cougars fall to 5-13.  The two teams will match up again tomorrow night at 8 pm following the women’s game.  As always, the games will be webcast on canadawest.tv.