DAVID LARKINS, Wesmen Athletics

The Winnipeg Wesmen held the Regina Cougars to a season-low on Friday and snapped their visitors' winning streak in the process. 

The Wesmen men's basketball team held the Cougars to 13 points in the third quarter and cruised to a 74-64 Canada West conference victory Friday night at the Duckworth Centre. 

It was the first time since Nov. 27, 2021 the Cougars suffered a defeat, a stretch of six straight wins that had put them atop of the East Division (11-4).

The Wesmen won their second in a row and moved to 7-6 in the East, while holding on to ninth place in the conference. 

Don Dayrit had 23 points with five rebounds and five assists to lead the Wesmen, who host the Cougars Saturday for Senior Night before closing out the conference season on the road at Saskatoon.

Spas Nikolov had 16 points, seven rebounds and two blocks before fouling out. He was 7-for-8 from the field, improving his conference-best field-goal percentage to 63.2 per cent. 

Malachi Alexander came off the bench with 12 points and six rebounds, and redshirt freshman Donald Stewart had seven points and five rebounds in 12 minutes of relief. 

Arinze Emeka-Anyakwo led the Cougars with 17 points. Josiah Thomas had 11, and Carter Millar and Benjamin Hillis chipped in 10 apiece. 

The Cougars, the top rebounding team in Canada West at 47.4 per game, were held to 42 to Winnipeg's 45. 

Leading 38-34 at the half, the Wesmen used a 22-13 third quarter to stretch their lead. 

An 11-3 run to start the fourth stretched the lead to a game-high 21 at 71-50. The closest the Cougars got was eight the rest of the way.

The teams meet again Saturday night (5 p.m.) as the program honours seniors Dayrit, Nikolov, Donte Makazu and Josh Gandier.

—#REPTHEW—