The Winnipeg Wesmen set the tone early and held off late to score a big win Friday night. 

The Wesmen women's basketball team held Trinity Western to nine points in the first quarter, then hung on to score a 72-65 win over the Spartans in a Canada West conference game at the Duckworth Centre. 

Winnipeg improved to 15-4 on the season and took one step closer to securing a top-four position and a hosting privilege in the first round of the post-season that begins next week. That position, however, is far from a certainty after Fraser Valley upset Saskatchewan Friday night, which now means Winnipeg must beat Trinity Western Saturday. A loss or another Fraser Valley win will drop the Wesmen out of the top four of the conference's RPI. 

On Friday, though, the Wesmen were sharp for most of the night with Anna Kernaghan scoring a career-high 28 points on an incredibly efficient 11 of 15 from the field. She made three of four from three and added five steals. 

Raizel Guinto added 15 points and Robyn Boulanger chipped in 13 with eight assists. Julia Schatkowsky grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds, and Tamiya Ness had eight boards off the bench.

The Spartans (11-8) got 17 points from Jayden Gill, 13 off the bench from Shemaiah Abatayo, 12 from Jolene Vlieg and 11 from Hailey Van Roekel. Nicole Fransson pulled down a game-high 19 rebounds with eight points and seven assists. 

The Wesmen trailed just once all night — when a Van Roekel triple made it 3-0 28 seconds into the game — and Winnipeg led by as many as 15 in the second half. The Wesmen led 57-42 going into the fourth, but a 14-3 run to start the quarter got the Spartans to within four with 5:43 remaining. The Wesmen, however, got a layup from Kernaghan and a three from Boulanger, while forcing two turnovers, to push the lead back to nine.