Kelowna B.C. – A quick start and a heavy dose of the long ball sent the Heat to a 82-59 loss to the Brandon Bobcats on Friday night in their Canada West women's basketball home opener.

Trailing 21-2 seven minutes in, UBCO scored the next nine points and shutout the Bobcats to narrow the gap to 10 in the first quarter.

Making four threes in each quarter the hot shooting Brandon squad couldn't shake the Heat who trailed by just 11 at the half.

UBC Okanagan regrouped at half and attacked the long range attack of the Bobcats holding the visitors to just 1-8 from long distance in the third; however, UBCO shot just 33-percent in the third scoring 11 points as Brandon worked for points inside and extended their lead to 63-41. Too large a deficit the Heat couldn't cut into the lead to fall to the visitors 82-59.

The Heat drop to (0-3) and the Bobcats get their first win and improve to (1-2).

UBC Okanagan was led in scoring by Jordan Korol and Lindsey Bott, both finished with 12 points, while Katie Punia, got the start and responded with 10 points. Punia and Mackenzie Horst both hauled in nine rebounds.

It was Adrianna Proulx and Logan Biccum doing most of the damage for Brandon, with 22 and 14 points respectively. Proulx went (4-7) from three and Biccum (3-5).  Lauren Anderson finished with a game-high 11 rebounds for Brandon as well.

Coaches comments:

First year Heat head coach Bobby Mitchell noted that while his team played well in spurts on Friday night, they were unable to keep it up for four quarters "At this level you cant relax for too many possessions and Brandon made us pay, they shot the ball really well and we had our hands down on some shots so we need to focus consitently more and more."

The numbers:

Brandon went 8 of 18 in the first half from long distance and finished the game at 11 for 28. UBCO couldn't get rolling from long distance hitting on just nine of 35 attempts. UBC Okanagan outrebounded the much larger Brandon team 46-41.

Heat notes:

This is the first time that Brandon has won in Kelowna, the home team had won the previous five meetings in the series history.

Up Next:

These two team will close out the series tomorrow night at UBC Okanagan starting at 5 p.m. PT.

Steven Lin, Heat Sports Information