U of W’s Giles on a roll

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This article was published 05/12/2022 (1025 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kyanna Giles is celebrating her final season of U Sports basketball by etching her name in the University of Winnipeg record book.

On Saturday, the 5-7 Wesmen guard became the first player in the program’s 23-year Canada West history to score at least 40 points and 10 rebounds in a conference game, registering 43 points and adding 13 boards in an 84-62 triumph over the hometown Brandon Bobcats.

“I actually was not energized at all. (I was student) teaching all day and then we had the bus ride to Brandon,” Giles, who had 10 of her club’s 14 first-quarter points, said Monday. “In the game on Thursday (against Brandon) I only had six points and they told us, ‘You’ve gotta get going again.’

“Just off the tipoff I had my first layup and it went in and I know once I made my first layup, I’m good to go. I was just rolling after that.”

Earlier this season, the fifth-year senior scored 44 points in a 95-85 win over the Manitoba Bisons during a pre-season tournament game Oct. 9, tying the record established by Antoinette Miller in 2017.

Wesmen great Sandra Carroll scored 51 points against the Regina Cougars in a Great Plains Athletic Conference game on Feb. 17, 1994.

“She came off a game on Thursday (against Brandon) where she didn’t score much — she still played very well and had lots of assists and rebounds and contributed in other ways,” said Wesmen head coach Alyssa Cox. “But I think she was pretty hungry for the Saturday game and just made a lot of things happen.”

Giles’ heroics are not unfamiliar to the first-year bench boss. Cox was on the sidelines as an assistant coach in 2021-22 when Giles and U Sports player of the year Keylyn Filewich led the Wesmen to a silver medal at last spring’s national championship.

Filewich has graduated and turned pro but an excellent veteran corps remains, including guards Robyn Boulanger and Anna Kernaghan. Added to the mix in the off-season were guard Raizel Guinto, a Louisiana Tech transfer, and forward/centre Julia Schatkowsky, a transfer from Canadian Mennonite University.

“They’ve played together before and so having her kind of integrated with the rest of the group has been really fun,” said Cox of Guinto’s addition. “She’s such a dynamic player and she’s such a good distributor, she really makes her teammates better. Throughout this first half, she’s been really integral in helping to build our team chemistry.”

The results have been excellent, suggesting another possible run at a national championship. Winnipeg is off to a 7-1 start and is expected to move from No. 5 to No. 4 in this week’s U Sports rankings, despite losing Kernaghan to a knee injury early in pre-season.

“You can’t really compare the two (teams) because you have different players and different positions and different roles,” said Giles. “We’re very guard heavy (this season) and a lot of people don’t know how to guard us because I play basically the four (forward position). I’m a guard, so guarding me with your four is a disadvantage for the other team.”

The Wesmen have exhibition games scheduled against Algoma University (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.) and Manitoba before the end of the month to prepare for a tough second half, which will include weekend series against the Calgary Dinos (6-2 in Canada West), the top-ranked Regina Cougars (7-1) and Fraser Valley Cascades (8-2).

“It’s gonna be a little bit more intense in the second half of the season just in terms of the the number of games in the schedule and then we have some big games against some of the other top teams as well,” said Cox.

Getting Kernaghan back into the lineup would be very welcome.

“She’s getting back into training,” said Cox. “We’re hoping to have her back in January. It’s still a little early to know exactly when that will be, but she’s working through her rehab right now and she’s slowly getting back into on-court training.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14