Calgary Stampeders narrowly beat MRU women's basketball team in friendly pickup game

The CFL season is still months away, but that didn't stopthe Calgary Stampeders from lacing up for a game of epic rivalry.

But this battle wasn't fought on turf. It happenedon hardwood.

On Wednesday morning, the Stamps tookon the Cougars Mount Royal University's women's basketball team.

And they only beat them by five points.

"I don't think you guys stand a chance," MRU team captain Angela Driscoll told Stampeders quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell before the game onWednesday morning.

Mitchell was quick to (sarcastically)point out that his team is alsoat the "peak" of their basketball season, having recently playedseveral elementary andhigh school teams.

"You know who is actually pretty good and I don't think you would expect isCharleston Hughes," said Mitchell.

"The guy can play for a big man."

The Stamps won the game 40-35. It took place in theTriple Gymnasium at Mount Royal University.

University-approved crowdfunding

The friendly game is meant to bring awareness to the varsity team's campaign to buy state-of-the-art heart rate monitors.

They need $10,000 and have raised more than half that amount in nine days thanks to USEED acrowdfunding platform developed in the U.S. that'sgeared specifically towards post-secondary projects.

The platformishosted byMRUand is being promoted by the universityas atool to financially assiststudents and professors a first for a Calgarypost-secondary institution.

According to the MRU website, USEED is "not intended to replace existing funding to Mount Royal University but to allow small, interesting projects the chance to succeed."

"Crowdfunding offers many exciting opportunities for people to invest directly in a project of interest to them."

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener