The University of Winnipeg Wesmen Women's Basketball team opened up the 2016-2017 Canada West regular season with a 58-52 victory over the UNBC Timberwolves Friday evening at the Dr. David F. Anderson Gymnasium in Winnipeg.

Fifth year guard Megan Noonan led the Wesmen with 14 points, including three-three pointers. Taylor Thorkelsson finished with 12 points and went two-for-two from beyond the arc. Antoinette Miller had nine points, nine rebounds and five assists.

Madison Landry led the Timberwolves with 15 points. Vasiliki Louka added 13 points. Maria Mongomo finished with a double-double 11 points and 15 rebounds.

Winnipeg started the contest on an 8-0 run and never looked back as they led 16-8 after the opening 10 minutes. The highlight of the opening quarter was a three pointer by Thorkelsson at the buzzer.

Scoring was at a minimum in the second quarter. The Timberwolves outscored Winnipeg by an 11-10 margin. Winnipeg went into the halftime break with a 26-19 lead.

Thorkelsson hit two key shots in the third quarter to extend the Wesmen lead to double digits at 35-25 with under four minutes to play in the frame. The Timberwolves did not back down, scoring 10 of the next 15 points to trail 40-35 after three quarters.

Winnipeg's three point shooting accuracy was visible in the fourth quarter. Megan Noonan drained a pair of three's and Lena Wenke drained a solo shot to extend Winnipeg's lead to double digits 58-48 with just under three minutes to play. UNBC made a late run scoring four more points to make the final tally 58-52 for the hometown Wesmen.

The two teams will continue their weekend series on Saturday evening with a 5:00 p.m. start time.