VICTORIA – The University of Calgary Dinos women's basketball team found the lead early and ran with it, taking down the University of Victoria, 78-42, in their season-opening game at CARSA Performance Gym.

Calgary starts the season at 1-0, while Victoria moves to 0-1 with the loss.

Louise Rouse paved the way for the Dinos, going 9-13 from the field for 18 points, also recording a team-high six rebounds along with one assist and two steals in 19 minutes on the floor. For the Vikes, Sierra Reisig collected 10 points, three rebounds and team-high four assists.

Abigail Becker struck first for the Vikes, giving UVic its only lead of the first half, 2-0, in the opening minute of play. Seven-straight points came from the Dinos in response, forcing a UVic timeout with eight minutes to play in the first quarter.

Continuing to build their lead, a three from Pollyanna Storie gave Calgary their first 10-point lead of the night, 14-4, before stretching it to 27-9 after the opening quarter. The Dinos worked their way to a 20-point lead at 37-17 on a Myriam Kone layup, maintaining that 20-point cushion at the half, 43-23.

Both sides found themselves in a scoring drought during the third quarter, with nearly four minutes passing without a basket. A free throw by the Vikes' Joaleah Tupas-Singh put a point on the board for Victoria, before Sydney Milum responded with a layup for Calgary to bring the score of 57-34. One more score for each team in the final minute finalized the third quarter score at 60-36 for Calgary.

Opening the fourth on a 9-0 run, the Dinos stretched their lead to 67-36 and forcing a Victoria timeout with 8:13 to play. Holding their lead to the end, the Dinos claimed a 78-42 at the final buzzer.

The Dinos defence held Victoria to just 28.6 percent (14-49) shooting for the game, including allowing just 3-11 from behind the arc by the Vikes.

Conversely, Calgary connected on 11-25 from three, led by Lilia Skumatova going a perfect 4-4 from deep in her first start.

Calgary also moved the ball very efficiently in the opener, finishing with 25 assists on 33 made field goals. Kone led the way with six, while Milica Gajic tallied five - both marking career highs for the second-year guards.

The Vikes and Dinos will complete the two-game series Saturday at 6 p.m. MT

-UC-