By Lee Bogle
The Dinos women’s basketball team can’t seem to put a decent weekend together. After two splits in two weeks, the home crowd hoped for a pair of victories against the University of Alberta Pandas, Nov. 21-22, who were 0-4 before this past weekend.
But who are we kidding?
"Friday was one of the most pathetic performances by a U of C women’s basketball team in my 11 years here," commented a noticeably agitated Head Coach Shawnee Harle. "The good news is that we responded and fought hard on Saturday for the win."
TGIF my ass! One paltry win against one of the worst teams in the conference may not discourage some, but it likely disappoints everyone.
Despite their record, our provincial rivals always pose a threat, according to guard Tanya Hautala.
"It’s usually one of the toughest games of the year," she noted.
Friday night was peppered with a few exciting plays, but was a disappointing excuse for university basketball. When the dust settled, the Dinos were vanquished 64-56. Perhaps going 0/9 from the land o’three points is partially to blame.
Lindsay Maundrell chipped in 21 and provided what little entertainment there was to be had from the ladies.
"It sucked so bad," Maundrell fumed. "I don’t think we played good enough D."
"I was pretty pissed off about Friday," added a usually reserved Hautala.
At least wrongs were righted on Saturday eve.
Hautala redeemed herself with 20, Shari Jonker netted 15 and Maundrell added 12 in the Dinos’ 66-60 win over the Pandas. And that felt nice.
Jonker exploded with her biggest offensive output in a month.
"You miss 100 per cent of the shots you don’t take," she told us wisely.
The Dinos are once again on home turf this weekend to do battle with the evil minions of the highly ranked University of Manitoba Bisons and University of Winnipeg Wesmen.
"We have to play our best basketball of the year to have a chance," Harle foreshadowed. "I like our chances of stealing one this weekend."
As do we, because based on weekends past–and regardless of the calibre of the competition–they are bound to take one of their two games.