The University of Regina's women's basketball team had a huge first quarter and never looked back, winning 88-72 over No. 3 Alberta on Friday night at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport to hand the Pandas just their third Canada West loss of the season.

The Cougars (11-4) outscored Alberta by a 24-10 margin in the first 10 minutes due in large part to Katie Polischuk's 11 points including three three-pointers. The Cougars led by double digits for most of the rest of the game, with Alberta getting no closer than seven points.

Kehlsie Crone finished as the U of R's leading scorer with 17 points and added six rebounds and five assists for the Cougars. Polischuk and Charlotte Kot both had 16 points, while Alyssia Kajati scored 12 and Coppola added 10 as all five Cougar starters broke into double figures. Coppola finished with seven rebounds to lead all players, six of which came in the game's opening quarter.

Sally Hillier was 5-for-10 from three-point range and finished with a game-high 21 points for Alberta, which falls to 11-3 on the season but remains in first place in the Pioneer Division a half game up on Saskatchewan, UBC, and Regina. Saskia Van Ginhoven scored 10 fourth-quarter points for the Pandas and finished with 11 on the night, while Maddie Rogers led Alberta with six rebounds.

The game got off to a bit of a slow offensive start with the two teams combining for just 12 points in the first half of the first quarter, but the Cougars got the offence moving in the final two minutes of the opening period. After Elle Hendershot's layup brought Alberta to within four, the Cougars finished the quarter on a 10-0 tear highlighted by a triple by Polischuk and a three-point play by Crone.

The Cougars got the lead up to 17 at two points in the second and took a 14-point lead into halftime, but nine consecutive points by the Golden Bears early in the third cut the U of R lead down to seven and forced a Cougar timeout. Alberta cut the lead back down to seven again two minutes later on Renee Byrne's lone three of the contest, but the Cougars quickly responded to get the lead back into double digits thanks to a triple by Caitlin Zacharias and a three-point play by Christina McCusker.

The Cougars led by 12 heading into the fourth and were able to pull away from the visiting Pandas down the stretch, with an 8-0 run over a minute and a half late in the period pushing the advantage from 12 to 20 with 1:34 left and putting the game away for the U of R.

The two teams will meet again on Saturday night at the CKHS (6:00, canadawest.tv).