WINNIPEG - The Winnipeg Wesmen completed a perfect regular season opening weekend with a 63-58 victory over the Calgary Dinos Saturday night at the Duckworth Centre.
BOX SCORE
Winnipeg earned the victory with a total team effort with three players scoring in double digits. Caity Gooch and Amy Ogidan led the team with a game high 20 points each. Ogidan was also strong on the boards hauling in 13 rebounds. Jessica Stromberg continued her strong play early on in the season scoring 16 points and grabbing a game high 16 rebounds. Gooch led the Wesmen with seven assists, four steals and four-three pointers.
Calgary was led by fifth year forward Courtney Coyle's team high 16 points, including a pair of three pointers. Whitney Haswell was next in Calgary scoring with 12 points and led the team with five assists. First year forward Alex Cole led the team in rebounds with 11.
Winnipeg fell behind early on in the first quarter (5-0) but rallied to score eight unanswered points to take a 8-5 lead. Winnipeg hung on in the closing moments of the opening quarter to take slim 16-15 lead after the opening quarter.
The trio of Gooch, Ogidan and Stromberg scored all of Winnipeg's 19 points in the second quarter to carry Winnipeg to a halftime lead of 35-33.
The turning point of the game was the third quarter that saw the Wesmen outscore Calgary 17-8 to extend their lead to 52-41 after three quarters.
Both teams struggled in the early part of the fourth quarter with the first basket scored by Calgary three minutes into the quarter. Calgary chipped away at the Wesmen lead scoring seven straight points to cut the Winnipeg lead to 52-50. Jessica Stromberg scored Winnipeg's first points of the quarter with a three-pointer 5:43 into the final quarter. Calgary made a late charge but Winnipeg was able to sink their free throws to earn their second victory of the weekend.
Winnipeg (2-0) will hit the road next weekend to take on the tough Regina Cougars in a two game series Friday and Saturday. Calgary (1-1) remains on the road, visiting Fraser Valley and Thompson Rivers next weekend before hosting Brandon and Regina in their home opener Nov. 7-8.
-30-
