Brittany Read Is A One Woman Show as Cougs Advance to Final

In one of the best postseason performances in the history of CIS women's basketball, University of Regina post Brittany Read scored 24 points and pulled down 29 rebounds to lead the Cougars to a 78-49 win over Saint Mary's in a semifinal game at the 2013 CIS Championship at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

The Cougars advance to Sunday's national championship game, where they'll meet Windsor for the chance to win their second CIS title in program history. Game time is scheduled for 4 p.m. (The Score, www.cis-sic.tv).

Read already had a double-double by halftime and simply dominated the fourth quarter. In five minutes on the floor in the final period, Read scored eight points and pulled down 11 rebounds to help the Cougars pull away down the stretch following a lackluster third-quarter effort. Her 29 rebounds break the old Canada West record of 28, which was set by Victoria's Edna Richie back in 1974.

Besides Read's monster numbers, the Cougars also got 13 points from Michelle Clark and 12 points from Danielle Schmidt. Rookie Katie Polischuk scored 11 points – all of which came in the first half – and grabbed nine rebounds to fall just short of her first career double-double.

“We followed the game plan tonight and Brittany was simply fantastic on the glass,” Cougars head coach Dave Taylor said. “We'll have the home crowd behind us tomorrow and I fully expect the game to go back and forth the whole time.”

Saint Mary's Nan Copp Trophy winner Justine Colley led the Huskies with 18 points, but was just 4-for-20 from the field. Naomie Fequiere had 15 points, while Laura Langille scored 10 for Saint Mary's. Langille and Amanda Smith both had eight rebounds for the Huskies.

The Cougars set the tone right from the early stages of the first quarter, responding to what would be Saint Mary's only lead of the game with a 13-1 run that gave the U of R a double-digit lead and fired up an already raucous CKHS to near-deafening levels. Two of Polischuk's three triples on the night came late in the first quarter, helping the Cougars take a 22-10 lead going into the second.

The momentum stayed with the home side in the second, as the Cougars scored nine straight at one point and led 42-22 at the break. Saint Mary's went on an 11-5 run to open the third quarter and got the lead down to 13 at one point, but Read's epic effort helped the Cougars go on a 14-2 run which put the game out of reach.

(U of R Athletics)