WINNIPEG — The Winnipeg Wesmen found the zone Thursday night to turn the tides on the Brandon Bobcats.

The Wesmen women's basketball team switched to a match-up zone after halftime and turned a precarious scoreline into a 77-65 Canada West conference victory at the Duckworth Centre.

The Wesmen and Bobcats were tied at 34 after two quarters and Brandon (0-9) opened the third on a 7-0 run. But the Wesmen outscored the Bobcats 25-10 over the final eight minutes of the third.

On the night, the Wesmen forced BU into 29 turnovers. 

"I think defensively we made them rush those shots a little more," Wesmen head coach Tanya McKay said. "The first half they were wide open. They got great looks in the first half because we were playing so far off and the kids didn't play with any intensity on man-to-man, they weren't talking, they weren't aggressive. The second half we a decision to start pressing more and put a little more pressure on them."

The Bobcats shot 6-for-12 from three in the first half but went 3-for-12 the rest of the way, finishing the night shooting 37.5 per cent from the field. 

"First half we had a lot of lay-ups that we just missed," Brandon head coach Novell Thomas said. "We could have blown a six-point lead into 10 or 12 had we made those layups and changed the momentum. But those opportunities disappeared in the second half. They went zone and our execution against zone wasn't very good."

Lena Wenke with 5-for-10 from the field, including a couple of threes, and finished with 20 points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals to lead the Wesmen (5-4) who won their third straight to move above .500 for the first time since the first weekend of the season. Jessica Dyck added a season-high 19 plus seven rebounds, and Anna Kernaghan and Jillian Duncan both chipped in 13.

Brandon was led by Adrianna Proulx's 13 points and seven rebounds. Logan Biccum and Hailey Maas both added 12 with Maas going 3-for-3 from three.

The two teams will meet again in a rare Monday match-up in Brandon.