BOX SCORE CALGARY - The University of Calgary Dinos won their sixth consecutive game of the season when they handily defeated the UBC Okanagan Heat 72-52 on Nov. 23 at Jack Simpson Gymnasium.
The Dinos improve to 6-2 to remain tied for second place in the Prairie Division with Alberta after the weekend, while the Heat drop to 1-7.
For the second night in a row, Kristie Sheils led the way for Calgary with 13 points. Jessica Thielen also scored 13 points for the Dinos and grabbed seven rebounds. Rookie Brianna Ghali added ten points and six rebounds in the win.
The Heat were unable to get into double digits, but both Krystal Schouten and Claire Elliott scored nine points. Emily Kanester picked up a game-high 8 rebounds.
Calgary came out of the gates hot with a number of players contributing early on and it would be the Dinos coming out on top after the first quarter by a score of 23-16.
In the second, the Dinos built up their lead to a ten point gap. The Heat put forth their best efforts to try and close out the lead, getting within three, but Calgary's Ashley Hirons silenced that with a three pointer. With three minutes left in the half, Thielen had already reached double-digits with 11 points and three UBC Okanagan players had scored seven for the visitors.
The half ended 38-31 in favour of the Dinos, with their shooting percentage at 43, while the Heat's was only at 25.
The third quarter saw both teams pick up the defence as no basket was scoring until three and a half minutes in. Calgary was the first to turn on the pressure and eventually built their lead up to 19 points at 59-40 by the end of the quarter. They scored 21 points and allowed just nine to be scored by the Heat.
In the fourth, it was Ghali's turn to reach double digits when she sunk a lay-up to give the Dinos their largest lead of the game at 23 points. From there, the Dinos sailed to the end of the game, picking up their sixth consecutive win of the season. The final score read 72-52.
The Dinos will host the Brandon Bobcats in their first games of the regular season before the Christmas break on Thursday, Nov. 28 and Friday Nov. 29. Tip-off for both games is set for 6 p.m.
UBC Okanagan will also host their final games of the regular season when they face the UNBC Timberwolves, Nov. 29-30.
