Dino-mite! Calgary completes magical run to Canada West Championship

Recap by UBC Sports Information, photos by Vamsi Nadella

VANCOUVER - In a back-and-forth defensive battle for the Canada West Crown, the Calgary Dinos were finally able to pull away in the fourth quarter to capture the Canada West Championship 63-57 over the UBC Thunderbirds Saturday afternoon at War Memorial Gym. 

Leading the way for the visitors was the game MVP Pollyanna Storie, who poured in 16 points while Kourtney Oss added 13 points and eight rebounds. Christine Geraldo and Milica Gajic chipped in nine points each for the Dinos who earned their eighth Canada West title in program history and first since 2001.

For the host T-Birds it was Olivia Weekes who led all scorers with 19 points while adding nine rebounds and fellow fifth-year Sarah Toneguzzi totalled 14 points in the defeat.

"We knew that we were going to have to box out and match their hard work," said first-year Dinos head coach Sarah Besselink. "One of the keys was really limiting their offensive rebounds especially in the fourth quarter, really slowing it down and executing on offence. We talked a lot at halftime about getting clean touches and going to the rim and we shot a lot more free throws in the second half which was great, we also got a lot of stops in the second half."

"I thought we had a good start, but we gave up a bit of a run going into halftime," commented UBC head coach Dave Taylor. "Then we gave up a 10-2 run in the last few minutes and that ended up hurting us. And then the fourth quarter didn't go how we wanted it."

The first quarter was full of defensive energy, with baskets hard to come by on both ends of the floor. Calgary would go 6 for 6 from the free throw line, while UBC's Olivia Weekes would start off 3 for 5 and 8 points in the first quarter but neither team could break away and the quarter would end tied, 14-14.

Oss would open the second quarter scoring, but UBC would engineer a 10-0 run, with 8 of those points coming from Toneguzzi. Weekes would extend the lead to 10 with four minutes remaining, but the Dinos would respond with a 10-2 run to end the half 30-28 for UBC.

The defence from both teams would ramp up again in the second half with the first field goal taking over two and a half minutes to score. Calgary's Oss would be all over the floor, scoring 7 points in the quarter, grabbing 4 rebounds and causing havoc on the defensive end. Weekes would respond with 7 points of her own, and the quarter would end tied once again, 42-42.

After dealing with foul trouble early in the game, Christine Geraldo would have a strong fourth quarter and knock down baskets when the Dinos needed it most. Geraldo would go 2 of 3 from the field and 3 of 3 from the free throw line in the 4th, including an and-1 midway through the quarter to extend the lead to 5. UBC was just never able to cut back into the deficit and Finals MVP Pollyanna Storie would hit two free throws to seal the victory for Calgary, taking home the Canada West Banner 63-57.

"It's going to be very interesting to see what the seeding is going to look like," added Besselink in reference to next week's national championship. "There's no easy games at nationals and ultimately winning that first one will be most important."

"What I said to them is that normally you get until midnight to feel sad," concluded Taylor in looking ahead to next weekend's challenge. "But I said that you've got until you walk out of this room, because the turnaround is so tight. We've got to recover today, because tomorrow once we find out who we're playing all the prep is going to be on that because it's such a quick turnaround." 

Both the UBC Thunderbirds and Calgary Dinos will represent the Canada West at the U SPORTS Final 8 Championship set to take place March 5-8, 2026 at Laval University in Quebec. The wildcard, seedings and schedule will be announced tomorrow afternoon.

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