KAMLOOPS, B.C. - Sophomore post
Kaitie Beard came off the bench to score a career-high 16 points as the University of Calgary Dinos got a significant victory over the Thompson Rivers WolfPack Friday night by a 72-62 score at the Tournament Capital Centre.
BOX SCORE
The Dinos rallied from a 34-33 half time deficit to down the 'Pack in a battle of two teams fighting for the eighth and final playoff spot in Canada West. The Dinos are now 7-10 on the year while TRU falls to 7-12.
“I thought we got a little space in the fourth quarter,” stated Dinos head coach
Shawnee Harle. “The thing I liked was we buckled in on defence and cut the gap. Once we got the lead I thought we kept it because of our defence."
In addition to Beard's 16 points,
Tamara Jarrett had 12 points while
Samara Pereira had a game-high 15 rebounds - 13 of them on defence.
Kaitlyn Widsten led the way for TRU with 17 points. Jen Ju had 12 points, while Kailey Colonna and Diane Schuetze each had nine rebounds for TRU.
With both squads battling for a playoff spot, this is a big weekend for the teams. But Harle says that pressure has been on her shoulders for a while.
"I started feeling the pressure back in November," she said. "It is so hard in this conference every night because there are so many good teams. We have seven games left and it seems like an eternity in many ways. Our team is young. I really still feel we are improving. We did some good things tonight but at times we were just terrible. I think those bad times are becoming less and our young kids are becoming better.
"I'm not under any illusions, this weekend is very important. But I feel every weekend is important. When you are fighting for the last playoff spot every loss hurts you and every win helps you.
“It's going to be another battle tomorrow night,” added Harle. “That is a good team we are playing. We knew they were going to junk us up tonight on the defensive end. It is not easy to play against because we don't see it all the time. I'm expecting another barn burner.”
The teams wrap up their weekend series Saturday night, with tip-off at 6 p.m. MT.
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