The Bisons and the University of Winnipeg Wesmen traded runs all night on Thursday, Jan. 29 at the Investors Group Athletic Centre. The visitors won 57-55 with only two seconds left in the 34th Duckworth Challenge. The Duckworth Challenge originated in the 1991-92 season as an effort to showcase the friendly rivalry between the two Winnipeg universities.
Taylor Schepp for the Bisons opened the scoring for the game with a layup, 0-2. The herd struggled to convert early, and although the teams were tied 4-4 midway through the first quarter, the Wesmen pulled ahead to 8-4. A late surge highlighted by Jazmin Birch’s contributions and a buzzer-beating three pointer sent the Wesmen to a 17-9 lead, winning the first quarter. Birch alone scored 12 points for the Wesmen in the first quarter, outscoring the Bisons who cumulatively scored nine points.
The second quarter was more even, as the Bisons used their depth to stop the game from slipping away. The Wesmen stretched the margin to 20-11, but with contributions from Bisons’ Darya Rom (6 points) and Samantha Onyebuchi (6 points), the herd reduced the deficit. The Wesmen took a 30-24 lead into halftime. In the first half, the Wesmen exposed the Bisons’ strategy of playing wide and breaking late, circling up just before the herd could get a clean look and forcing bad shots, keeping the herd under constant pressure.
In the third quarter, the Bisons scored 15 points and the Wesmen 11. Outscoring the Wesmen allowed the herd to reduce the deficit. With a minute left on the clock, a three pointer by Rom tied the score 39-39. It turned out to not be much help as Wesmen’s Jennifer Kallon scored a jump shot with one second left on the clock. The scoreline was 41-39 as the game went into the last quarter.
In the final quarter, the herd took the lead with a three pointer from Rom, making the score 41-42. Both teams went back and forth on scoring and were equal in execution.
The closing 30 seconds was the tightest stretch of the game and revolved around the 55–55 deadlock. With 12 seconds left, Anna Miko missed a layup and then made a rebound — the ball made it to Schepp who attempted to make a jump shot but she missed.
With seven seconds left on the clock, Wesmen’s Jasia Hayden made a defensive rebound, with the ball ultimately making it to Kallon who scored the game-winning layup for the Wesmen with two seconds left. The Wesmen won the game 57-55.
Bisons women’s basketball head coach Michele Sung reflected on the loss to the Wesmen. “This is a classic Duckworth Challenge game for sure, and unfortunately in close games like that someone [will always] come out on the losing side and that was us today.”
She pointed to a slow first quarter as the herd searched for rhythm and the right lineup, but praised the second-half fight fueled by better rebounding and offensive flow, with Rom (16 points) and Schepp (21 points) stepping up when it mattered. “I was proud of them for taking over at times […] we just need to be a little bit more consistent.”
The Bisons and the Wesmen played again on Saturday, Jan. 31 at the Duckworth Centre. The herd went all in to win the game 76-61. Both games seemed to have favoured the visitors. As of Saturday, 10 p.m. C.T, the herd is seventh in the Canada West Prairie standings.
The Bisons will go on to face the Brandon Bobcats on Friday, Feb. 6 at 6 p.m. CT and Saturday, Feb. 7 at 5 p.m. CT at the Investors Group Athletic Centre. The herd last faced the Bobcats on Oct. 24, 2025, and lost the game 86-71.
