With Giles out, U of R in tough at national tournament

The University of Regina Cougars are dealing with a loss that may be even tougher to deal with than the one in the Canada West final.

All-Canadian Kyanna Giles is out for this weekend’s national tournament.

Giles went down with a knee injury during the Canada West women’s basketball final against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. The Cougars went on to lose that game 53-49.

The third-year guard was the team leader in points, averaging 18.4 points and 8.8 rebounds per game.

It’s a tough loss, admitted head coach Dave Taylor, but he remains optimistic.

“I said to the team, ‘Everybody’s got to get one more basket and we got to have everybody play, not above themselves, but just play their normal game,’ ” Taylor said on the Green Zone Monday.

“We still have a lot of talented players; (Giles’ absence) just removes that margin of error.”

The Cougars are seeded fifth in the tournament and will square off against the No. 4-ranked University of Ottawa on Thursday night.

Fortunately, the Cougars have a lot of experience in big games like this one. This is the fourth straight year the team has gone to the national tournament.

“It’s nothing new to us, they understand it. They understand the challenge and we’ve been in this 4-5 game before, so they’re two pretty evenly matched teams,” Taylor said, adding they’ll lean on their fourth- and fifth-years who know the drill by now.

“Sometimes you get caught up a little bit too much in the moment instead of treating it like any other game and that’ll be key for us. This is kind of a unique situation for us in going as a bit of an underdog and I think we’ll kind of relish this role,” Taylor added.

“But the thing is you just (need to) get in there and you enjoy it and treat it like any other game and don’t go away from what made you successful.”

Game time for the Cougars is 7 p.m.