The U of M Bisons women’s basketball team had a tough test against the No. 8 University of Calgary Dinos in a weekend series. Home-court advantage meant little as the Bisons were swept aside in back-to-back games.
Friday
The women’s basketball team lost to the Calgary Dinos by a score of 75-54 at the Investors Group Athletic Centre Friday.
Manitoba was led by Nicole Konieczny’s 16 points and eight rebounds. Four players got into double digits in points for Calgary, with Erin McIntosh scoring a team-high 14.
A strong first half gave the Dinos too big a lead for the Bisons to overcome.
The Dinos put together a 16-0 run to give them a 16-2 lead in the opening quarter. McIntosh scored six of her 14 points during the run and Kiki Knox added another four. A Keziah Brothers layup ended the run, but the visitors took a commanding 29-12 lead into the second frame.
Sascha Lichtenwald scored five points for Calgary in the second quarter, as the visitors continued to control the play and took a 49-23 lead into halftime.
Manitoba came out of halftime a much different team, opening with an 8-0 run. Konieczny scored four of the points on the run and cut the Bisons’ deficit to 18 points.
“I wish we could have played the whole game like we played the third quarter,” Bisons head coach Michele Sung told Bison Sports.
Taylor Randall netted eight points for the hometeam in the fourth quarter, but the Dinos defence held the Bisons to just nine points total. Calgary took control of the game and steered its way to a 75-54 victory.
Saturday
The Bisons fell to the Dinos by a score of 74-61 Saturday, giving Calgary the weekend sweep.
Calgary was led by McIntosh’s game-high 24 points, while the Bisons were led by Randall’s 19 points.
Manitoba went down 5-4 early on but rallied for a 9-0 run, led by Randall and Claire Harvey. The Bisons defence was strong and Harvey made a huge block during the scoring run. Calgary called a timeout to calm things down and ended the frame on a 15-3 run.
Emma Thompson scored the first five points for the herd in the second quarter and posted up for a huge block late in the frame. The two teams exchanged looks throughout the second, and Calgary led 37-30 at the break.
The Dinos pulled away in the third quarter. The score was 47-39 when the visitors put together a 10-0 run. The run was sparked by turnovers and steals, and Knox’s two layups. Addison Martin made a jump shot to end the run. Calgary led by 16 entering the fourth.
Manitoba opened the fourth with a 10-0 run, with Thompson and Martin connecting on back-to-back threes. Calgary responded with an 11-0 run started by three straight McIntosh buckets. The Dinos rolled to a 74-61 win.
Bisons forward Thompson said the team got tired in the second half of the game.
“We just ran out of gas a little bit,” said Thompson.
“We were going super hard yesterday and all game today […] it was a good start but we need to learn how to continue that.”
“It’s definitely not how we wanted to finish,” she said.
“We have a really hard second half, but I think we’re going to take this and all the stuff we learned, especially from this game.”
The Bisons now head into the conference bye and holiday break. The club hits the court again for the Wesmen Classic from Dec. 27 to 30, and returns to action on Jan. 4 against the University of Alberta Pandas.
