ABBOTSFORD, B.C. – With Sukhjot Bains leading a fourth-quarter charge, the University of the Fraser Valley men's basketball team clinched a home playoff date in their regular-season finale, topping the Regina Cougars 85-74 on Saturday at the Envision Financial Athletic Centre.

The Cougars had snapped the Cascades' nine-game win streak on Friday by a score of 87-70, putting UFV's hopes of hosting a playoff game in peril. But the Cascades (13-7) bounced back in a big way to clinch the No. 7 seed in Canada West. They'll host the No. 10 Winnipeg Wesmen next Friday at the EFAC. The Cougars (10-10), meanwhile, finish as the No. 9 seed and will visit the No. 8 Lethbridge Pronghorns in the first round.

"You always want to win on your senior night, with friends and family in the crowd," UFV head coach Adam Friesen said, alluding to the post-game ceremony to honour fifth-year players Sukhjot Bains, Parm Bains and Matt Cooley. "But as a group, we understood what was at stake. Everyone was excited about the opportunity to host a playoff game next weekend.

"Our seniors came up big – they made some really big offensive plays, no doubt. But containing Regina's transition offence in the second half as well as only having two turnovers in the second half ourselves allowed us to stay in the game long enough to find a little offensive spark."

The Cougars led by as many as eight points in the first quarter, but the Cascades put together a 10-1 run early in the second – ignited by a pair of Sukhjot Bains treys – to grab a 28-24 lead. Regina's Benjamin Hillis, though, scored five straight to end the frame, giving the visitors a 41-39 advantage at the break.

The game stayed close throughout the third quarter, with UFV's Vick Toor scoring in the paint to give his team a 59-57 edge heading to the fourth.

The Cascades opened the final frame on a 10-0 run, with Parm Bains scoring five points in that stretch, and Sukhjot Bains took over from there. With Regina threatening, back to within 74-68 with three and a half minutes left in regulation, the senior guard hit a highly contested three-pointer to swing the momentum back to the hosts. That sparked a 9-0 UFV run – capped, appropriately, by another Sukhjot Bains trey, his sixth of the night, to salt the game away with the Cascades up 83-68.

"Big players make big plays, and credit to him," Regina head coach Steve Burrows said of Sukhjot Bains, who finished with a game-high 24 points, nine rebounds and three assists.

"I don't think we rebounded the ball well enough in the fourth quarter. They got some second-chance ones, which you can't do against a team that can score the ball as well as they can. We didn't close down some possessions as well as we needed to in the fourth quarter, and that's that."

Parm Bains racked up 17 points and six assists for the Cascades, Toor had 13 points, six boards and five assists, and Cooley had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Benjamin Hillis (16 points, eight rebounds, eight assists), Greishe Clerjuste (14), Samuel Hillis (13) and Shaquille Harris (12) scored in double figures for Regina.

Afterward, Friesen lauded the contributions of his three seniors.

"Those guys have meant a whole bunch," he said. "They've come in and represented the program well on and off the court, and they've sacrificed a lot of time and energy for the program. They've really turned themselves this year into excellent leaders whose influence will be felt for years to come through our young guys."

BOUNCE PASSES: Parm Bains has established a new Canada West career record for three-pointers per game. He's averaged 3.24 treys per game over his career with the Cascades, eclipsing the previous mark of 2.98 set by former SFU and UBC standout Pasha Bains. . . . Parm also set a new team record for threes in a season with 79, edging Manny Dulay's mark of 78 established in 2016-17. That's the third-most treys in a season in CW history – the record of 82 is co-held by Nathan Dixon (Manitoba Bisons, 2008-09) and Daniel Ferguson (Alberta Golden Bears, 2010-11). Dixon played 22 games to set the record, and Ferguson played 24 to equal it, as CW played a longer schedule in those days.