Six weeks is along time to wait between meaningful games.
That's just a fact of life in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association, where teams have to try to find ways to stay on top of their game during the lengthy semester break.
The long layoff didn't seem to phase the Calgary Dinos, they looked razor sharp while cutting down the UNBC Timberwolves 77-52 Thursday night at the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre.
The trick for the Dinos was to stay active over Christmas and they had no trouble finding their stride to resume their run at the Canada West title. The win moved the Dinos (9-2) into a three-way tie for first place in the Canada West Prairie Conference standings. The T-wolves (4-7) remained fifth in the Pacific Conference.
"It feels great to be in first, we had a really tough Christmas break doing conditioning and two practices every day and this shows that hard work pays off and if we keep working hard I'm sure that will pay off for us in the playoffs, said Dinos guard Kristie Sheils, who collected nine points and five assists, had five defensive rebounds and three steals.
Ashley Hirons, with 16 points, and Jessica Thielen, who had 11, led the Dinos' attack. Mercedes Van Koughnett shot a game-high 22 points for UNBC.
Sheils, a 22-year-old native of Ellesmereport, England, is in her third season in Calgary and this was her first visit to Prince George. She was impressed with what she saw from the Timberwolves, playing in their second season as probationary members of the CIS.
"I thought UNBC was a really tough team, they're not at the top, but being coached by a European [Sergey Shchepotkin] they bring a different style and that's good," said Sheils.
The UNBC women showed their rust and got off to a slow start, trailing 21-9 after 10 minutes but with Van Koughnett pulling the trigger the offence came to life in the second quarter and they matched the Dinos' 18-point output to cut the lead to 39-27 at the half.
Calgary pulled away in the third quarter, outscoring UNBC 21-9 on the strength of Sheils' deadly accuracy finding open shots and balanced ball distribution to Hirons, Tamara Jarrett and Clarise Jennings, who all padded their point totals.
"The best thing about our team is we don't have one player who scores every game, we have four or five different players who step up every game and that makes it hard for other teams to scout us," said Sheils.
It didn't help the UNBC comeback cause that Van Koughnett was in foul trouble with four to start the fourth quarter. Shchepotkin kept his fifth-year guard in for the rest of the game but her efforts to stay foul-free took a lot of aggression out of her game.
The T-wolves were missing the outside shooting threat of fifth-year wing Jen Bruce, out with a concussion, but got some quality minutes from Cassandra Rerick, who played 18 minutes and led UNBC with seven takeaways.
"It just showed the difference in level, Calgary is very experienced and they are very difficult to play against and we didn't have Jen Bruce," said Shchepotkin. "She is one of our most important players and we had problems with shooting. Nobody could shoot and nobody could score.
"The defence worked pretty good against that team and it's good to get experience playing against such teams."
Meanwhile in the men's game later Thursday, Franck Olivier Kouagnia scored 17 points to lift the home-court T-wolves to an 80-66 victory over the Dinos.
The win improved UNBC's seventh-place Pacific Conference record to 4-7, dropping Calgary to 5-7
The teams were tied 34-34 at the half and UNBC held a 54-50 lead after three quarters. T-wolves forward Charles Barton came through with some clutch foul shooting and after two key buckets from his teammate Kouagnia put down an offensive rebound that gave UNBC some breathing room down the stretch.
Barton finished the game with 12 points. Philip Barndt led the Dinos with a 15-point effort.
Next up for UNBC is a home court date with the Lethbridge Pronghorns on Saturday. The women play at 6 p.m., followed by the men at 8.
