CALGARY – The second half of the 2011-12 Canada West basketball season is about to get underway in the Jack Simpson Gym – a period that will culminate with the CIS Women's Basketball Final 8 March 17-19, when the Dinos will join the other top teams in Canada to vie for the national title.

The women's games tip off at 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights, with the men following at 8 p.m. as the Saskatchewan Huskies come to town this weekend. All four games will be broadcast live on CanadaWest.tv.

There are but 10 games left in the season for the Dinos hoops squads, and their records are mirror images of each other. The Dinos women, already assured of a spot in the national tournament, enter this weekend's series with the Saskatchewan Huskies boasting a 7-3 record looking to secure a playoff spot and, potentially, home court advantage in the post-season. Calgary's men, meanwhile, have limped to a 3-7 mark at the halfway point and have a big hill to climb to avoid missing the playoffs for the second straight season.

Dan Vanhooren's Dinos, decimated by injuries and missing as many as four starters at one point, finally got some good news last week with the late debut of Boris Bakovic in Calgary colours. Bakovic, the subject of a nationwide recruiting war when he left Ryerson following his fourth year after leading the nation in scoring for a third straight season, took the floor for the Dinos in their two-game road swing through Fraser Valley and Trinity Western.

After missing better than two months with an injury sustained at Team Canada's camp in preparation for the Pan Am Games in Mexico, Bakovic contributed big minutes for the Dinos in his first taste of Canada West action. He played 31 minutes each night and averaged 17.5 points, particularly impressing on Saturday night against the Spartans. But his contributions alone were not enough, and Calgary dropped both games to slip further back in the standings.

However, the Dinos remain just two games behind Lethbridge for the final playoff spot in the east division and, with just half the season in the books, Calgary has a chance to make a stretch run. All 10 games the Dinos have remaining are within the division, starting with this weekend's tilt against No. 4-ranked Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan (6-3) saw a five-game win streak snapped last week in Vancouver in a 69-60 loss to the UBC Thunderbirds – one of the teams the Dinos have beaten. Led by reigning conference MVP Jamelle Barrett, who is averaging 19.3 points per game but put up nearly 26 per contest last season, the Huskies are a veteran, deep, talented group that presents match-up challenges for every team they face. Next to Barrett, a trio of fifth-year seniors – Duncan Jones, Michael Lieffers, and Peter Lomuro – is also averaging double digit scoring.

Calgary fans will finally get a chance to see the Bakovic-Tyler Fidler combination in action, a tandem that Vanhooren and his squad dearly hope will spark the Dinos down the stretch – especially with the awaited return to the line-up of point guard Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson. Fidler's 17.4 points per game leads Calgary to this point, with sophomore Josh Wolfram pulling yeoman's duty in the paint to put up 12.9 per night.

The women's side is also intriguing with the defending conference champs and 2011 national silver medallist Huskies paying a visit. Saskatchewan, ranked No. 5 this week with a 5-4 record, was awarded hosting rights for one of the two regional play-in tournaments for March's Final 8 in the Jack – and with home court advantage on that pivotal weekend, it's certainly possible that the Huskies will return to Calgary to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Head coach Lisa Thomaidis and the Huskies certainly experienced significant turnover after falling to Windsor in the national final last year, but Saskatchewan plucked a six-foot-three freshman forward named Dalyce Emmerson out of Prince Albert – and if early returns are an indication, she's going to be a dominant force in Canada West for the foreseeable future. Nearly averaging a double-double on the season, Emmerson has 12.2 points per game to her credit – just four points off the clip of the team's leading scorer, fifth-year guard Katie Miyazaki. Kabree Howard and Mary Hipperson follow on the Huskies' scoring leaderboard.

But where the 2010-11 Huskies averaged just under 76 points per game, this year's edition is scoring at less than 65 points per outing and has relied on its defence en route to the 5-4 record.

The Dinos, meanwhile, split their weekend in B.C. last week with a loss at Fraser Valley followed by a 71-58 win over Trinity Western. Calgary's attack has been balanced all season long, with contributions from everybody: in 10 games to this point, six different players have led the team in scoring.

Four Dinos – Jenna Kaye (14.5 pts), Tamara Jarrett (13.9), Megan Lang (11.3), and Alex Cole (10.8) are averaging in the double digits on the scoreboard for Shawnee Harle as Calgary returns to a home court that has been kind to them so far. The Dinos are 4-0 in conference play in the Jack and went 3-0 at their annual Holiday Hoops tournament to capture the title. It's a trend they certainly hope will continue as the Final 8 draws ever closer.

Calgary's defence has also been noteworthy, and it's ranked third-best in Canada West with just 60.3 points per game allowed in the first half of the season. The Dinos are the most efficient-shooting team in the conference with a .435 field goal percentage, and they're the second-best three-point shooting team in Canada West.

The Dinos hoops teams make a quick trip south next weekend to face the Lethbridge Pronghorns for a two-game set before returning home to host the Alberta Pandas and Golden Bears for the first time in two seasons. That series will take place Jan. 27-28. The home schedule closes Feb. 10-11 when the Winnipeg Wesmen pay a visit to the Jack.

-UC-