LANGLEY, B.C. – Led by Christine Geraldo's 20 points, four steals, and four rebounds, the University of Calgary Dinos opened the Canada West postseason with a 91-67 win over the Manitoba Bisons on Friday afternoon at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The victory sends the Dinos onto the Canada West quarter-finals, where they will play the host No. 3 Trinity Western Spartans (15-5) Saturday night at 9 p.m. MT at the LEC.
 
Calgary - the sixth seed in this year's conference tournament - led from start to finish, using suffocating defence in the second quarter to build a 48-29 lead at the half and never looking back.

"I love our full-court pressure today," Dinos head coach Sarah Besselink said. "We were able to get 54 deflections today, which was good. The ability to create turnovers is a little bit of our identity to get out and run. I wasn't super happy with our flow today, but, overall, they threw a lot of things defensively at us, and you can't be mad about scoring 91 points."

The Dinos came out on fire and quickly jumped out to a 9-1 lead on three straight three-point baskets. The 11th-seeded Manitoba slowly found its game and cut into Calgary's lead to five points, trailing 18-13 with just over two minutes remaining. The Dinos ended the quarter strong to take a seven-point lead, 22-15, at the end of the opening quarter.
 
Calgary was the better team in the second quarter. Their defence held the Bisons to just five points over the first five minutes,as the Dinos outscored the Bisons 18-5 to take a 20-point lead, 40-20, with five minutes remaining in the half. The two teams matched each other for the remainder of the half, with Calgary taking a 19-point lead, 48-29, into the halftime break.
 
Manitoba scored early to start the second half and cut the Calgary lead to 14 points, 48-34. The Bisons and Dinos matched each other over the remainder of the third quarter as Calgary took a 15-point lead at the end of 30 minutes. The Bisons had their best quarter of the game, outscoring the Dinos 25-21, but were still behind 69-54 heading into the final quarter.
 
The Dinos gradually increased their lead in the fourth quarter, taking a 23-point lead, 79-56, with 5:30 remaining in the game. The Dinos continued to control the game down the stretch as Calgary finished with a 24-point win to earn their spot in the Canada West quarterfinals.

With the win, the Dinos have now won 32 in a row against the Bisons dating back to 2005.

Calgary finished the night shooting 55.9 percent (33-59) from the field, 47.1 percent (8-17) from the three-point line, and 73.9 percent (17-23) from the foul line, while the Bisons shot 35.1 percent (20-57), 37.5 percent (9-24), and 78.3 percent (18-23) respectively.

Kourtney Oss with a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds, Milica Gajic with 14 points and seven rebounds, and Pollyanna Storie with 13 points and three rebounds also had strong games for the Dinos.

Darya Rom with 18 points, Anna Miko with 11 points and five rebounds, and Ayva Khan with 10 points led the Bisons.
 
Also noteworthy, the Dinos finished with a 37-29 edge in rebounds, 15-7 in assists, and 7-3 in steals.

Up next, Calgary will play the host Trinity Western in the Canada West quarter-final Saturday night at 9 p.m. MT at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The game will be streamed live on Canada West TV.
 
"Looking forward to tomorrow's game," Besselink said. "They play a little bit of a similar style. Obviously, Trinity's a little bit bigger, so we're in for a good game."

-UC-