By Sean Nyilassy and Lee Bogle
Riding a 7-1 record into the headquarters of the perpetually poor University of Alberta Pandas should statistically be an easy deuce of wins. Fortunately, the Dinos women’s basketball team knew better from some bad experiences in the past.
“We learned from last year not to take teams lightly,” heroine and co-captain Lindsay Maundrell advised us.
Even so, they may have been a little relaxed Fri., Nov. 12, falling behind 18-8 in the waxing moon phase of the game. But the girls’ horoscopes read to “expect a change in the potential future soon-ish.” As everyone knows horoscopes are infallible, like somebody’s God, and change is just what happened. They led 29-22 at the half.
“We dug down and found some character,” ranted Jade Jensen.
The second half saw back and forth bantering. No important alterations were made and the final score etched into the history books was 56-48. So it is written. Maundrell was named player of the game with 14 points. To our dismay, she is yet to pull out her infamous spin-o-rama move. Then all shall fear her wrath.
Another dismal get go was awaiting the Dinos Sat., Nov. 13. The game was toight like a toiger at half bells, with our girls having their second lead of the game at 31-30. You do the math.
“We had a little chat at half time and I really challenged [the all powerful Dinos],” Head Coach Shawnee Harle smiled in retrospect. “They came out and played like the fifth ranked team in Canada.”
An ass-walloping ensued. To shame the opponents in front of their own whiney fans, the Dinos put on an impromptu skills clinic and distributed free passes for the Pandas squad. The clinic ended with a 19-0 run and Calgary ended the game with style, finishing 77-52.
The wee 5ïž´4 co-captain Tanya Hautala led points with 28 in her 27 minutes of court time. This belittled her previous night’s total of four points. Not to take anything away from this sporadic talent, she is still the fifth ranked scorer in the highly competitive Canada West league. Not to be overshadowed, Maundrell and Jensen potted 18 and 16 pointeroos respectively.
This weekend guarantees all you frosh readers stimulating b-ball excitement. It promises to be hot, with five-on-five action on the hardwood. And, it’s licensed, for both beer and good times. If you’ve never experienced the glory of athletic perfection, come watch our 9-1 Dinos tackle the struggling University of Lethbridge Pronghorns Nov. 19-20 in the Jack Simpson Gymnasium. Games are both at 6 p.m. Hey, they’ve even got new uniforms, how exciting!
According to Harle, it should still be a fantastic match.
“There are no easy wins in Canada West. We’re the better team, but talk is cheap and we have to go out and earn it.”