EDMONTON - University of Alberta Pandas basketball rookie Nicole Clarke, showed poise and control in her first ever CIS playoff game, helping her #5 ranked Pandas to a 81-57 victory over the University of Calgary Dinos Friday night in the U of A's Main Gym.  The win gives Alberta a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three central division semi final series.

BOX SCORE

Clarke, a Calgary native and guard, has been a revelation for the Pandas this season starting a majority of games and serving as a key contributor.
 
Tonight she started out on fire as she nailed a pair of three-pointers, pushing Alberta to a 13-5 advantage early on.

The Dinos were able to cut that lead down to a five-point deficit at the end of the first quarter, 20-15, but that would be as close as they would get for the rest of the evening.

At half-time the Pandas ballooned their first quarter lead to 15 points, walking into the dressing room with a 40-25 advantage.

Alberta kept the pressure going in the third, only slowing down mid-way through the fourth when the result was no longer in question.

After posting wins of 83-53 and 84-60 last weekend to sweep the Dinos in the last action of the regular season, the Pandas displayed their focus and attention for the post-season tonight by starting strong and holding that level of intensity throughout the game, a lesson learned from conference play.

Clarke finished with 21 points, hitting 3-4 treys and all four free-throws.  The rookie also hauled in three boards and two assists in a fine post-season debut.

Three Pandas hit 11 points as Katie Barrett, Anneka Bakker and Marisa Haylett all hit double-digits in points, while fifth year guard Ashley Wigg had six points, 12 assists and five steals.

Ashley Hill, the third year forward for the Dinos, had 21 points while Megan Lang had 10 points. 

Calgary had six rookies in the contest, including Robyn Gibson and Ashley Ashman who were starters.

Tip-off for game two of the best-of-three series goes tomorrow night at 6 p.m. MT.

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