Herds of Bison and packs of Wesmen

By Lee Bogle and Sean Nyilassy

A loss isn’t always a loss. Sometimes something can be learned from a good loss and a team can gain from it. Jan. 7-8 the Dinos had two solid losses.


“We were playing with a depleted roster,” Head Coach Shawnee Harle explained.


Three of the Dinos’ key players were unable to play to their potential due to injury or recovery time.


The Friday night romping was at the mighty man hands of the University of Manitoba Bisons. The Dinos came out of the blocks like a falabella (those wee-little midget horses) at a thoroughbred horse race. With a quarter of the game done, the Bisons had a comfortable 23-9 lead.


Harle looked to the bench for relief, which came in the form of Michelle Stiphout. She drained a cool eight points in a wee-little three minute stretch helping the Dinos back to a 34-27 deficit. Then things started to get ugly.


Since we aren’t fans of the ugly, here it is in short form. 80-59.


Co-captains Lindsay Maundrell and Tanya Hautala put 13 and 12 points in respectively.


Saturday night the shit hit the fan–still struggling to spin from the previous night’s shit-hitting. The Dinos dove into battle with the 19-1 University of Winnipeg Wesmen. This proved to be a poor military strategy as the war turned sour with seven minutes left in the half.


The Dinos’ 16-15 lead pressed a hot button, bringing a Wesmen onslaught of 14 unanswered points and a 34-21 U of W halftime lead. More ugly ensued, with a 12-0 Wesmen run and a 69-55 loss etched in the halls of history.


Cory Bekkering helped the Dinos out with 16 points while Hautala added 15.


“There was a weird feeling on the court,” said Hautala of the phenomena that caused the losses. “We were all out of whack.”


The two losses leave our ladies teetering with a 5-5 record. The next games for the Dinos will be at home against our rivals, the University of Alberta Pandas. Rookie Whitney Haswell knows just what needs to happen.


“We’ve gotta beat Alberta.”


Games are played Jan. 14-15 at 6 p.m. in the Jack Simpson Gym. Be there or be square!


For a story from the ladies holiday home tournament, check the sports section at gauntlet.ucalgary.ca.