When the buzzer sounded to mark the end of each of the first three quarters, the Trinity Western Spartans were happy. After all, the scoreboard showed them to be on top against the Calgary Dinos.
Unfortunately, the game is four quarters long, and when the final buzzer sounded at the end of the fourth quarter on Saturday night in Calgary, the host Dinos had rallied to win 70-64, stretching the Spartans women's basketball team's conference losing steak to 16 games.
The Dinos also won the night before, 80-62.
In Saturday's defeat, Trinity Western led 11-9 after one and 30-24 at halftime. But the Dinos cut the deficit to a single point, 48-47 after three quarters, and then took control in the fourth.
Despite the loss, Spartans coach Cheryl Jean-Paul saw some encouraging signs.
"We had some athletes step up in both rebounding and scoring; we didn't let mistakes hamper us from competing," she said.
"We did a great job of being in the game and staying in the game, and we also did a great job on the boards today."
"It is one more lesson that we had an opportunity to learn; we just weren't able to close out, but is is a great sign of things to come," she added. "And we want to continue to build in this direction of being able to compete right until the end of the game."
Tiffany Olsen, with 17 points and eight rebounds, Holly Strom with a double-double of 14 points and 13 rebounds, Stephanie Carkner with 10 points and four rebounds and Corina Reimer with three points and a dozen rebounds led the way for the Spartans.
In Friday's loss, the team was done in by poor first and fourth quarters, as they were outscored 42-23 over those 20 minutes. In the rest of the game, they held a slim 39-38 advantage.
Olsen was the lone Spartan to reach double digits, scoring 23 points and grabbing a dozen rebounds.
The Spartans (1-17) are in action this weekend with a pair of games against the first-place Saskatchewan Huskies (14-2) at the Langley Events Centre. Tip-off is 6 p.m. Friday and 5 p.m. on Saturday.