Kyanna Giles poured in 29 points as the University of Regina's women's basketball team opened the Canada West schedule with a hard-fought 81-76 road victory over the Calgary Dinos on Friday night.

Considering there were 17 lead changes over the course of the game, it was fitting that it came right down to the wire. The Dinos took the lead with a Laura Grabe layup with 45 seconds to go, but that turned out to be Calgary's last points of the game. Carolina Goncalves drove to the basket for two points on the U of R's ensuing possessions, and the Cougars got a pair of stops and two free throws apiece from Michaela Kleisinger and Carolina Goncalves in the dying seconds to seal the win.

Giles was all over the scoresheet on the Friday. Her 29 points came on 12-of-24 shooting and the third-year guard also piled up nine rebounds, four assists, and four steals in the win.

"Kyanna gave us an All-Canadian effort tonight," Cougars head coach Dave Taylor said. "She was aggressive and she got us some big baskets when we needed them. I thought we struggled with our transition defence a great deal and we got outrebounded which is usually not a recipe for success for us, but we shot the ball better than we have been. It was nice to see us gain some confidence in our ability to close out a game defensively, too."

Besides Giles' 29-point performance, the Cougars also got 14 points from Kleisinger and 11 points from Christina McCusker. Kleisinger also added five rebounds and five assists for the U of R.

Erin McIntosh had 20 points to lead Calgary (0-1).

The two teams will meet again on Saturday night in Calgary. Game time is set for 5:00 PM.