BOX SCORE

CALGARY – They're already guaranteed a spot at the CIS Final 8 as its host, but the as-yet-unranked University of Calgary Dinos made a statement that they'll be a force to reckon with on their home court in March after a repeat performance Saturday, sweeping the Alberta Pandas with a 74-67 win in the Jack Simpson Gym.

It's the first sweep of Alberta for the Dinos women since the 2005-06 season, when they did it twice – once in the regular season, and once in the playoffs. And it comes on the same weekend as a men's sweep of Alberta for the first time since January 1989 – the year the Dinos won the national championship. The win vaults Calgary into a tie with Alberta at 11-5 with two weeks left in the season, and the Dinos now have a chance to finish second in the conference and host a first-round playoff series.

But they certainly had to work for it. Up 14 at the half, Calgary seemed well in control as they had a night earlier in a wire-to-wire win. But that lead was cut to just three after the third quarter, and the Pandas took a 62-61 lead with just 4:15 to play in the fourth. From there, however, the Dinos went on a 9-0 run to regain the advantage, and it ended in a seven-point decision for the home side.

“I thought Alberta played tough tonight,” said Dinos head coach Shawnee Harle. “They rebounded the heck out of the ball, they were aggressive, and for a while there it certainly got uncomfortable. It's very good for our team as we try to prepare this group to compete at a national championship. Every game there is going to be a dogfight like this, times 10. Our team responded well, we had some tremendous contributions from the bench, and it was a great weekend for us.”

Calgary was led by a sparkling effort from forward Jessica Franz, who scored 19 points and hauled in a game-high nine rebounds, with 15 of those points coming in the opening half. Point guard Jenna Kaye picked up where she left off Friday, pouring in 17 points, while freshman Erica Romanow had the game of her life with 15 points, all treys as she shot 5-for-8 from beyond the arc. Tamara Jarrett also hit double digits with 12 points.

Saskia Van Ginhoven put up 17 and hauled down nine for Alberta, with Anneka Bakker and Sally Hillier following up with 10 points each. The Pandas shot just under 34 per cent on the night, while Calgary went 47.3 per cent from the field.

After putting up back-to-back 74-point nights against what had been a stingy Alberta defence coming in, the Dinos inched that much closer to clinching a playoff spot in Canada West, with an eye toward hosting the quarterfinal round.

“I think we've been a Top 10 team for 6-8 weeks, but I'm only one vote,” said Harle. “We've played some pretty good basketball, and we've beaten some pretty good teams. But to tell the truth, I don't really care about that. I know where we're going to be on March 17 anyway.”

That would be a 7 p.m. tip-off in the national quarterfinal in the Jack on St. Patrick's Day. But first, the Dinos have two more weekends of the regular season, beginning with a trip to Winnipeg to face the Bisons Feb. 2-3 before closing the campaign at home Feb. 10-11 against the Winnipeg Wesmen.

Alberta heads to enemy territory to take on the No. 1, undefeated Regina Cougars next week and returns home a week later to face the winless Brandon Bobcats.

-UC-