The University of Regina's women's basketball team used a big fourth-quarter run to pull away from the Calgary Dinos for a 69-55 victory in Game 1 of a best-of-three Canada West quarterfinal series on Friday night at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

Calgary took its only lead of the game after going on a 7-0 run in the third quarter, but the Cougars quickly recovered with six straight points of their own and never trailed after that. A scoreless stretch by the Dinos over a span of well over four minutes in the fourth quarter proved to be the visitors' undoing, as the Cougars scored 13 consecutive points during that time to push what had been a five-point lead into an 18-point advantage just past the midpoint of the final period.

"Tonight looked like two teams that were coming off a bye weekend," Cougars head coach Dave Taylor said. "The game looked nothing like the two games we had three weeks ago in Calgary – both teams looked rusty, but we were able to hit a couple of key shots to put it away late. I expect both teams to be much better tomorrow night."

Charlotte Kot had another fine game for the Cougars, going 10-for-11 from the field to lead all players with 22 points while adding six rebounds. Sidney Dobner had 19 points and four assists, while Alyssia Kajati had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Calgary was let by Kristie Sheils with 13 points, while Kelsey Lund added 11 points and Brianna Ghali came off the bench to score 10. Claire Colborne was held to five points but contributed in a huge way on the glass with a game-high 15 rebounds.

Regina came out strong, scoring on five consecutive possessions over a two-minute span to build a 14-5 lead and force Calgary coach Damian Jennings to call a timeout near the midway mark of the first quarter. The Cougars led 20-11 after one, then saw the lead hit double digits in the second quarter before setting for an eight-point halftime lead.

That set the stage for Calgary's brief lead in the third before the U of R's game-changing 13-0 run in the fourth, which was capped by a Katie Polischuk three-pointer that likely put the game out of reach. The Cougars never led by fewer than 13 points the rest of the way to cruise to victory.

The Cougars will go for the series sweep in Game 2, which is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start time on Saturday night at the CKHS.

NOTES: The Cougars improve their all-time postseason record against Calgary to 6-2 with the win ... Regina is now a perfect 3-0 at home against the Dinos in the playoffs.