Myriam Kone,; Dinos v. Manitoba Bisons, Jan. 17, 2025. Photo by Daman Singh.

Why play dirty when you could play well? Dinos women’s basketball sweep weekend against Bisons

By Maggie Hsu, January 20 2025—

Despite what the scoreboards say, the Dinos’ women’s basketball team faced a challenging weekend against the Manitoba Bisons. With fans packing the stands for Pack the Jack on Friday and Staff Appreciation Night on Saturday, the Bisons were not about to go down without their greatest attempt at spoiling the celebrations while attempting to break a 20-year winless curse against the Dinos and an even longer 25-year drought at Jack Simpson Gym.

On Friday Night, the Dinos set the tone early, taking a commanding 33-12 lead after the first quarter with leading scorer, Myriam Kone dropping points as she has all season. By halftime, the Dinos had established the pace of the series against the Bisons, extending their lead to 49-22. 

The second half saw the Bisons up the intensity, much to the chagrin of the 940 fans in attendance with aggressive play and several fouls overlooked by the officials. However, the Dinos showcased their offensive depth, with four players—Pollyanna Storie, Kone, Amélie Collin and Mya Proctor—each scoring over 10 points, totalling 61-points in a 93-50 victory.

“You have to expect that … We have to stick with what we do and don’t change [our] game plan,” Storie commented on the Bisons’ physicality. “In the end, it got a little bit messy but at the end of the day, we got the win and we did what we wanted to do.”

“It’s something that we work on in practice as well so when it comes to game time, it’s nothing new,” interim head coach Jhony Verrone added. 

Knowing Saturday’s game would be a fight until the bitter end, this mentality proved to be one of the Dinos’ strengths as they returned to Jack Simpson less than 24-hours later. The Dinos installed their defensive front early on with Amélie Collin and Kourtney Oss stepping up, forcing a combined seven steals, three blocks and grabbing 10 defensive rebounds. This defense-first mindset created transitions into offensive opportunities for scoring, allowing for four Dinos again to contribute. Kone, Collin, Storie and Sammy Shields combined for 49-points to easily raise the Dinos to another dominant 83-43 win

The weekend sweep marked Verrone’s first regular-season home victories as interim head coach.

“They are making it easy on me in terms of they’re willing to learn and just get better,” Verrone commented on stepping in to this role from being an assistant coach to the men’s team. “As an assistant, I had to choose when to speak up but with this team, I know I have to speak up more so I can lead them the proper way.”

As a former Dino basketball player, Verrone is well versed in the day-to-day of a student athlete and with a thorough understanding of how the Dinos program operates, he appears confident to lead the Dinos through to the end of the season and hopefully, to a long-run in the Canada West and U SPORTS championships.

What’s Next?

The Dinos are looking ahead to a weekend match, visiting their their crosstown rivals, MRU Cougars which would kickoff a six-game “home stand” in which the Dinos don’t have to travel until February. After this series against the Bisons, the Dinos extend their undefeated season on home court and they will hope to maximize this home court advantage to hone their skills and claw up the rankings to improve their playoff seedings.

“The goal is to get enough reps to get comfortable,” Verrone commented. “We understand we have to shoot the ball better and also make sure they’re all used to my adjustments so when it comes to playoffs, nothing is going to be new.”

Closing remarks

The energy of Pack the Jack was undeniable and the Dinos women’s team definitely soaked it up to help them push and rake up points while encouraging them to keep their heads in the game to perform for the crowd.

“I love it—it’s great,” Storie described the crowd. “We get good crowds but we don’t get anything like this on a regular. I don’t hear it as much when I’m playing but when you’re on the bench, you get to soak in the environment and it’s really fun.”


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