Toni Gordon is coming off the fifth double double of her Canada West career with 11 points and 11 rebounds against Winnipeg last Saturday (Husain Dhooma photo).
Toni Gordon is coming off the fifth double double of her Canada West career with 11 points and 11 rebounds against Winnipeg last Saturday (Husain Dhooma photo).
November 6, 2025

Griffins excited and eager to bring their top game against TRU for Minor Basketball Night

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Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – Excitement will fill the David Atkinson Gym on Friday as the Griffins get set to play in front of hundreds of young basketball players in the Edmonton area.

The excitement generated from the always popular Minor Basketball Night will certainly give the Griffins a lift as they host the Thompson Rivers WolfPack (5 p.m.). They'll also host TRU on Saturday (3 p.m., both David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV).

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"I think it's great that young players get to come and see university basketball at the highest level in our country, especially on the women's side," said Griffins women's basketball head coach Katherine Adams. "I think it's great we can promote that and hopefully get them excited about playing and looking at the possibility of what can be one day. 

"I think our Game Day team does a great job of creating a fun, great atmosphere, so it's going to be a lot of fun. It's always fun to play in that type of environment as well."

Both the Griffins (0-4) and WolfPack (0-3) enter the weekend searching for their first win of the 2025-26 season.

MacEwan is coming off a tough opening series at U SPORTS defending champion Saskatchewan and a home weekend vs. Winnipeg where they had plenty of lessons learned in two losses.

"Looking at the past two weekends, there have been a variety of things we can reflect back on," said Adams., " 'We're really happy with how that went. Here are some things we can tweak or areas we can improve.' It's just another opportunity for us to go out and show those changes and continue to grow and get better. 

"(The WolfPack) play a different style than what we've seen against Sask and Winnipeg so far. Just really looking forward to another opportunity to compete."

The stats – a 24.3 per cent shooting percentage from the field – would indicate the Griffins' offence isn't generating enough makeable shots. But the tape would reveal the opposite as the team's ball movement has created plenty of open looks, but they're just not falling. 

"I'm not unhappy with the basketball we're playing," said Adams, whose team has also been pretty locked in defensively so far. "I think we're creating good looks, we're putting people in positions where they can be successful and play to their strengths. 

"We're 95% there, we just need to capitalize and find that last 5% to finish the play and see the ball go through the hoop."

They've also been a team full of some stunning individual performances like Unity Obasuyi's 31-point effort or Toni Gordon's double double last Saturday. Or Samantha Hickey's six-block effort last Friday against Winnipeg.

Now, they need to put the whole thing together and find multiple players going on any given night.

"We recognize that we're not going to be successful on the back of one individual player," said Adams of Obasuyi, who has scored 50 per cent of the Griffins' points so far this season. "So, we've taken the time to look at opportunities where maybe different decisions could have been made or the things we're not quite seeing and missing out on where we can get other people involved. 

"There are two sides to it because, one, we have to find people when they're open and put them in positions to do that, which I think we have done – we just haven't hit them yet. Two, we have to convert on that when we do find people open. 

"Both of those things are areas we're hoping to grow in this weekend and put together a holistic team performance."