After fumbling away their first two games of the season, the University of Calgary Dinos women's basketball team has done nothing but win.
Their streak hit eight games before the semester break six weeks ago. Now sporting an 8-2 record, Calgary is the hottest team in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association, one win off the pace of the first-place Saskatchewan Huskies (9-1).
That makes tonight's game at the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre (6 p.m. start) against the Dinos a significant challenge for the host UNBC Timberwolves. Having lost three of their last four games, the T-wolves (4-6) could desperately use home-court wins over Calgary tonight and Lethbridge on Saturday to improve their fifth-place standing in the Canada West Pacific Conference.
"We'll try our best, we'll try to stop them," said UNBC head coach Sergei Shchepotkin. "It's always good to play a strong team and we are playing them in our court so it does give us a little bit of help.
"Calgary is strong experienced team and it's not only one player. They're not huge, but they have some tall players and they have a very good point guard (third-year Kristie Shiels) and a fifth-year wing (Tamara Jarrett) who is the best scorer there.They score most of their points not under the basket but from the perimeter."
In their most recent CIS action Nov. 30 in Kelowna the T-wolves came home with a seven-point win over UBC-Okanagan.
The T-wolves are averaging 68.3 points per game, tied with Victoria for third in the conference, while Calgary is eighth in the conference, averaging 64 points per game. The big difference is team defence. The Dinos have allowed an average 58.9 points per game, while UNBC has given up an average 71.6 points.
The T-wolves will be missing fifth-year guard Jen Bruce, who is out with a concussion after colliding head-to-head in a practice scrimmage on Friday with red-shirted player Chantel Nicholson. Shchepotkin is hopeful Bruce will be available Saturday to play against Lethbridge. In 10 games this season the native of Langley has averaged 12.9 points per game (third on the team), having nailed 23 baskets from three-point range.
The UNBC men (3-7) have sunk to seventh in the standings and they'll be taking on a 5-5 Calgary team that's won five of its last six games, after an 0-4 start.
Fourth-year Dinos point guard Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson poses a huge outside shooting threat to the T-wolves. He leads Canada West with a 21.2 point average and has hit a league-leading 28 treys and 54 free throws through 10 games. Charles Barton continues to set the scoring pace for UNBC, averaging 16.5 points per game.
The men tip off at 8 p.m.
