Box Score
WBB: MRU (65) at WPG (77)

The University of Winnipeg took the win over the Mount Royal University Cougars tonight, 77-65, at MRU's Kenyon Court in Calgary, Alta. 

WPG went into tonight's game ranked fifth nationally, and showed the crowd why. Their physical play-style and aggressive press were the key to their victory tonight. 

They also had three players get special recognition this season. Keylyn Filewich, Kyanna Giles and Faith Hezekiah were named to the first, second and third all-star teams. 

Both Filewich and Giles also finished the regular season as repeated mentions on the CW top 10 leader boards. Giles made an appearance in rebounding, scoring and steals, while finishing first in assists. Filewich finished within the top 10 for both scoring and rebounding. 

Both their abilities were on display tonight, with Giles being named player of the game with an incredible 27 points and eight rebounds. Filewich had a double-double of 12 and 12, points and rebounds. 

"As you know, the first five minutes wasn't the best, missing layups," said Giles. "Just tryna get the jitters out of us and keep going and playing our game."

The Wesman are back tomorrow to play the Fraser Valley Cascades in Kenyon Court.

"The first game we played against them was preseason and they're great three-point shooters and they have a big post inside. So defending the three and defending the rim, it's going to be a good game," said Giles. 

The Cougars held their own and showed incredible growth throughout the regular season that continued into the first two rounds of playoffs. 

This team is considerably undersized in comparison to the tough WPG squad, but MRU still managed to grab 38 rebounds. Tanis Metcalfe and Jamie Lalor led the way with eight rebounds a piece for Mount Royal. 

Metcalfe did more than that, adding 11 points and was a huge presence for the Cougars. She was constantly putting pressure against Filewich and reduced her usual performance. Her persistence in the paint got her named Mount Royal's player of the game.

"What we've been really focusing on is our defence, and winning the rebounding battles. So, when we focus on that we seem to have pretty good games and played some really good teams," said Metcalfe. "We really wanted to focus on [Filewich], especially since she's a first team all-star and I thought we did a pretty good job at doing that. I thought it was a pretty good game considering."

Maddison Hooper also had a good night for MRU, putting up 14 points, making four buckets from beyond the arch. Her sharp shooting and versatility in the attacking end helped control the pace and provide space for the Cougars' forwards and posts'. 

Tip-off for tomorrow night's quarter-final match-up will be at 7:00 p.m., at Mount Royal University's Kenyon Court. Catch the game live on Canada West TV presented by Co-op. 


Player of the game: Tanis Metcalfe.