BOX SCORE
CALGARY – The final score was not indicative of the play for the most part on this night as the Winnipeg Wesmen scored a 76-70 win over the No. 9 Calgary Dinos Friday in the Jack Simpson Gym.
The loss snaps Calgary's winning streak at six and confirms that the Dinos will be on the road for the opening round of the Canada West playoffs. Winnipeg improves to 9-10 on the year, while the Dinos drop to 13-6.
The Wesmen built up a big lead after three quarters, holding the Dinos under 40 points through the first 30 minutes. Calgary mounted a furious charge in the fourth, oustcoring Winnipeg 31-13 in the final frame, but despite coming as close as four away, the 24-point deficit was too much to overcome.
“I thought Winnipeg was the better team tonight,” said Dinos head coach Shawnee Harle. “They were certainly hungrier. We lacked urgency and I thought an average week in practice caught up to us. Perhaps it's the wake-up call we need as the season ends and playoffs begin.”
For most of the night, it seemed that the Wesmen were the nationally-ranked, playoff bound team, not one that had already been eliminated from playoff contention. After Calgary shot out to a 9-0 lead in the first three minutes, Yael Kaplan hit a three-ball to put the Wesmen on the board – something that would become a recurring theme in the first half – and Winnipeg ended the first quarter on a 21-6 run to take a six-point lead in to the second.
After the quarter break, things went from bad to worse for the Dinos, who found themselves trailing 45-24 at the half. Calgary would add 15 more in the third before finally waking up offensively in the final period, where the Dinos nearly doubled their point total from the previous three.
The Wesmen just kept raining trey after trey in the opening half, shooting better than 42 per cent from beyond the arc before the break. After tossing up 19 attempts from three-point land in the first half, however, Winnipeg was more selective in the second half and made just four attempts from downtown. Still, they out-threed the Dinos 9-4 on the night.
Kaplan accounted for nearly a third of the Wesmen's scoring with 23 points in 27 minutes off the bench, including a 4-for-6 stat line from long range. Amy Ogidan chalked up 14 points, while Alex Warburton chipped in with 13 for Winnipeg.
Calgary was led by Jenna Kale, who had a quiet 19-point outing.
Jessica Franz scored 17 while hauling down a game-high eight rebounds, while
Alex Cole matched that total on the glass while pouring in an even dozen points.
The Dinos and Wesmen will face off once more to close the regular season Saturday night. Tip-off goes at 6 p.m. in the Jack Simpson Gym, live on CanadaWest.tv.
Calgary will host the 2012 CIS Women's Basketball Final 8 March 17-19.
-UC-
