Belmore helping lead the way for top-ranked Cougars

While the University of Regina’s women’s basketball team always has high expectations, Jade Belmore thinks the Cougars have gone above and beyond with how their season has started.

The team has lost only one Canada West game this season. It sports a 9-1 conference record and is the No. 1 team in the U Sports top-10 rankings.

“I think it’s unexpected. I think we obviously had this goal and it’s the goal of every team. We’ve been working at it hard and it has been going well for us, so we kind of have to keep on going on this train. We’re chugging along and pushing through, but so far it has been really good,” said Belmore, a wing who’s in her second year with the Cougars.

The Cougars’ next game is Friday in Winnipeg against the Wesmen (8-2).

The surprise comes from how Regina has made the jump from the 2021-22 season, when it had an 8-8 conference record.

“Now that we know the struggle and how much it takes, I think we don’t realize how much work we’ve put into this, but it is paying off and I think we don’t give ourselves enough credit for that. But we do put a lot of work into this,” Belmore said.

“We are a young team and I think not a lot of people realize that because we only have a couple senior people on our team. But it shows how we are as a team and how we move along and we’re going to be like this for the next couple years. I think it’s really exciting and it’s really important that we stick together as a team.”

One reason for the team’s success has been the improvement in Belmore, who was named the Canada West rookie of the year last season. This year, the Dr. Martin LeBoldus Catholic High School alumnus is among the top players in Canada West with 19.5 points per game (fourth in the conference), 9.4 rebounds a game (fourth), and 5.6 assists a game (second).

But she’s not focused on her individual stats.

“It’s my goal to be that leader, but I’m not looking at those individual stats. I’m looking to get my team to a national championship and that’s kind of my goal and I just have to do that by performing,” Belmore said.

The Regina product has been able to do this all in the city she grew up in.

“It means a lot. I love having the support with the community, fans, family and everything that’s here. It means a lot to me to play here and represent my city,” Belmore said.

She first picked up a basketball and started playing the sport when she was in Grade 1.

“I’ve always enjoyed the challenges that it has brought up and it has taught me a lot of lessons and I enjoy that. But I was just put (into the sport) and told to put a basketball into the hoop,” Belmore said.

While she had success in the sport, it wasn’t until late into her high school career that Belmore thought a U Sports career could be possible.

“I was pretty underdeveloped as a player and not maybe the type of player you would think would play university basketball. I had the talent maybe but I physically wasn’t there yet and that came to me late in high school. When Dave (Taylor, the Cougars’ head coach) said, ‘You could play for our team,’ that’s when I realized,” Belmore said.

That might be shocking for some who saw Belmore star in her high school career.

As a member of the Golden Suns, she helped lead the team to back-to-back provincial titles in 2018 and ’19. She was also a big reason the Golden Suns won the girls championship at the 67th and 68th Luther Invitational Tournaments, and she was named the event’s MVP both times. She is the all-time girls scoring leader at the tournament with 165 points.

“That tournament is great. I could rave about that tournament all day long because I think it gives so much opportunity and so much options for people to be looked at,” Belmore said.

“You face a whole bunch of different teams — great teams, especially for the girls — and you see different teams you’ve never faced before and really good teams as well. It exposes you to a different challenge. I love that tournament and it brought me a lot of different challenges and it’s a great one to be in.”

While they never played on the same high school team, a Team Saskatchewan teammate is also helping lead the way for the 2022-23 Cougars.

Along with Belmore, Cara Misskey is also among the conference leaders: She’s seventh in points per game (18.5) and first in assists per game (6.2).

“We’ve been good friends for a very long time and we played Team Sask. together so that carried right through to where she committed here as well,” Belmore said.

“We’re in it together. We push each other a lot in practice, we want to make each other better and we’re fighting for that spot, but I think that just makes the world of a difference to have another person with you to keep that up.”

Belmore and her teammates will look to get back into the U Sports Final Eight tournament in Sydney N.S., after reaching the Canada West Final Four last season. The national tournament is set for March 9-12.

“We can and I think we do believe that. We’ve just got to trust what we’ve put into this that we’ve come this far and should be able to go to this next level,” Belmore said.