CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos women's basketball team secured their eighth win in a row with a 96-62 win over the Brandon Bobcats Friday evening inside the Jack Simpson Gym.

With this win, the Dinos progress to a 12-3 record and remain right in the middle of a logjam atop the Canada West Prairie Division. The Bobcats sit at a 2-13 record in ninth.

Despite the mismatch on paper, Brandon came out matching Calgary right out of the gates. The Bobcats couldn't miss early, with Piper Ingalls connecting on three early triples to give the vistors an 18-10 lead with 4:05 left in the first. The Dinos settled in though and got some hot shooting of their own from Amélie Collin, Lilia Skumatova, and Sammy Shields to level the score at 27-all after one.

In the second quarter, the Dinos picked up their momentum and dominated the court, as they outscored the Bobcats 23-14. They took the halftime score to 50-41. 

From there on out it was all Calgary. The halftime adjustments from interim head coach Jhony Verrone helped the Dinos' defence get back into gear, limiting Brandon to just 21 points over the final 20 minutes. Pollyanna Storie closed the third with a triple to make it 72-50 for the Scarlet & Gold.

The final quarter saw the Dinos once again be able to go deep into their bench for valuable minutes on the court as they iced this one away. Notably, Friday's game marked the return to action for second-year guard Megan Weisgerber - playing in her first game since suffering a knee injury that has kept her off the court for just over one year. Weisgerber finished the night with two points, two assists and a rebound in 13 minutes of action.

Skumatov led the Dinos in scoring in this game with 18 points and six rebounds, Collin at 17, Storie at 14 and Shields at 12 all hit double digits as they followed not far behind in the scoring column.

Piper Ingalls took the lead for the Bobcats with 17 points and two rebounds to her name.

"I wanted to bring a lot of energy as we're down some players tonight and I wanted to play as hard as I could and bring my game," said Sammy Shields Dinos player of the game "Since we started off rough, it was important for us to maintain our composure and finish off strong in the third and fourth quarters. We need to make sure we're not underestimating our opponents, as they came out hungry and stayed hungry, so we needed to just keep ourselves going and finish off right."

The Dinos and Bobcats will play the second leg of their doubleheader on Saturday at 6 p.m. in the Jack Simpson Gymnasium. 

-UC-