“One second! One second on the clock!”

It was the Wesmen Women’s Basketball Team’s last game against crosstown rivals, the University of Manitoba Bisons, in a three-game playoff series earlier this year.

There was one second left in regulation time and the Wesmen were losing 61-60. The ball was inbounded to second-year guard Amy Ogidan, who caught it, and managed to make a shot.

As the buzzer sounded to end the game, the referee’s whistle blew to call a foul. Ogidan went to the foul line with no time remaining on the clock. She had to make both of her foul shots for the Wesmen to advance to the Great Plains championship against Regina.

Ogidan sunk the first, to tie the game, then hit the second, giving the Wesmen a 62-61 win over the Bisons.

This is 19-year-old Kaitlin Frison’s favourite memory with the Wesmen. The third-year forward, from Eatonia, Sask., said she first began playing basketball because her dad was a coach.

“I joined my first team when I was six,” Frison said.

Almost 14 years later, Frison is working towards a bio-chemistry degree, “geared towards pre-optometry,” and she’s still playing basketball.

When asked why, she said simply, “I have the opportunity to continue doing something I love.”

Frison said she thinks the team is going to do well this year and is looking forward to their first home game on Friday, Oct. 9 against Lakehead University.

Published in Volume 64, Number 4 of The Uniter (September 24, 2009)